Cotton Bleu - Bistro.Bar.Tapas

The Cotton Family, winner of last year FairPrice Family CookOff Season 1 has fulfill their dream of owning a restaurant whereby they setup a French-style family restaurant known as "Cotton Bleu". Their restaurant is located along Upper Thomson Road with varieties of choices from Appetizer, Main Course to Dessert. Below are some of their dishes that we have tried during the Press Conference of this year, FairPrice Family CookOff Season 2.

FOR APPETIZER:

Marinated Duck wrapped in French Crêpe is one of the finale signature dishes cook up by the Cotton Family, during last year FairPrice Family Cook Off Season 1. The slices of flavorsome duck are wrapped in thin layer of freshly made French Crepe, give it a juicy and smooth combination which is quite different from those popular Asian Peking duck wrapped in pancake wrapper.

Fresh Mozzarella Salad with Tomato, Prosciutto and Oriental Pears in balsamic vinaigrette with Mint serves as a great option for weight watcher as well as customers on vegetarian option. This is indeed a refreshing dish to start off before the main course.

Half Dozen baked Escargots with Fresh herbs, Tomato and Garlic Butter suits those who love the combination of herbs, garlic and butter. The texture of the escargots are nicely done and infused with the aroma from the seasonings. And if you prefer you can even dip the bread roll into the butter herbs sauce which gives it with a great finishing taste .

FOR MAIN COURSE:

Roasted Spring Chicken in Beer and Juniper Berries, on a bed of Tagliatelle is my choice for the day. I love the roasted chicken which is wrapped with a layer of bacon which adds an extra flavour to the moist and tender roast which sits on a bed of tagliatelle.

Grilled Codfish with French Beans in Provencal Sauce taste great with its special tangy Provencal sauce that help to ease out the greasy feel of Cod. But perhaps the french beans can be slightly under cooked to retain it's crunch bites which will be better in taste.

Rosemary Lamb Racks with Pommes au Gratin and Red Kidney Beans might sounds tough if the rack is not properly cooked. But to our surprise the lamb was juicy and tender pairing with an unusual addition of kidney beans that release a sweet flavour when eaten with the lamb. Overall this dish received quite a number of thumbs up for that day too.

FOR DESSERT:

Cotton Bleu FairPrice CookOff Winning Dessert: Floating Icebergs suits those with sweet tooth especially kids. I love the thick and creamy homemade custard base which top with generous scoop of poached egg white and drizzle of caramel sauce which give it 3 different layers of taste and texture. Indeed this is a very special homemade dessert which is pretty easy to make and it will definitely received well comments from most of guest. If you are interested to put your hand in trying out this dessert you can take a look at their recipe at FairPrice CookOff Official website Here.

Accordingly to Herve and Susan(owners of the restaurant), during some of the days or special occasions they do prepared limited set of "Special" menu to surprise their guest. So if you want to find out more about their menu or make any reservation, you can either ring up the restaurant directly or drop-by their official facebook page to check their updates on the daily menu too.

Cotton Bleu - Bistro.Bar.Tapas

205, Upper Thomson Rd
Singapore 574345
Reservation: +65 6252 5525
Facebook Page: Cotton Bleu - Bistro | Bar | Tapas

Opening Hours:
Mon - Fri: 12:00pm - 2:30pm(lunch); 6:00pm - 10:30pm(dinner)
Sat - Sun: 11:30am - 3:00pm (lunch); 5:00pm - 12:00am(dinner)

Mixed Berry Cake with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

As you can see from most of my "bakes" I seldom do cake with frosting because my skill level of frosting is totally unbearable. I can't seems to frost a whole cake evenly with smooth finishing or at least something presentable. But after seeing Celes's mouthwatering "Blueberry Cake with Cheesecake Frosting" photo on twitter and facebook I decided to give her recipe a try.

So with a twist to her recipe, I have made a Mixed Berry Cake together with some Cupcakes frosted with fresh Raspberry Cream Cheese.

Recipe adapted from Celes @ Celestial Delish

Ingredients: (make one 7" size cake and 6 medium cupcakes)
180g Butter, soften
170g Caster Sugar
3 Large Eggs
225g Self Raising Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Vanilla essence
250g Sour Cream
200g Blueberries
125g Raspberries, reserve 1/4 for cream frosting and decoration

Mixed Berry Cupcakes made with half portion of the batter resting on the cooling rack.

Method:-

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degree.

2. Cream butter and sugar for 1 minute, add in flour, baking powder and vanilla and continue to beat for another 2 minutes on low speed until thick and creamy.

3. Next beat in 4 heap tablespoons of sour cream then stir in the mixed-berry using a spatula or wooden spoon till well mixed.

4. Scoop the mixture evenly into a 7" disposal round case and the remaining batter into 6 holes muffins tray line with paper cups liner.

5. Bake the cake for 50 minutes or until skewer insert and comes out clean; OR

* Bake the 6 holes muffins tray batch at 20 minutes or till skewer insert and comes out clean.

6. Cool for cake/cupcake on the cooling rack till completely cold when touch before proceeding to the frosting.

The Original recipe calls only cream cheese, icing sugar and sour cream but in order to make the frosting more colourful and presentable. I added about 10 raspberries into the beaten cream to enhance the taste, texture as well as visual effect to the frosting.

RASPBERRY CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Ingredients:

200g tub Philadelphia cheese
100g icing sugar
Remaining Sour Cream, leftover from the cake batter
10 Raspberry, roughly chopped

Method:-

1. Beat the soft cream cheese with the icing sugar and the remaining soured cream in a bowl until smooth and creamy.

2. Add in chopped raspberries and give it a quick stir or two till mixture is well combined.

3. Spread cheese mixture over the top of the completely cooled cake and scatter with some extra berries on top as decoration. OR

* Spoon a few tablespoons of prepared cream mixture into a pipping bag with a "Wilton 2D" pipping nozzle attached and pipe rose design starting from the middle of the cupcake in clockwise direction.

Mixed Berry Cake with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Overall this is a very soft, light and moist cake made with fresh berries that makes you feel irresistible with its fruity flavour cream cheese topping. And according to Celes, these frosted cake can keep well in the fridge for a couple of days. But before serving, it will be best to bring it to room temperature so that the texture will be soft and moist instead of harden and dry due to storing in the fridge.

Lastly I would like to thanks Celes for sharing this wonderful recipe as well as her patience in walking through the steps and sharing of handy tips in the baking process.

Chicken Karaage

Sorry for the lack of post(s) these few weeks because I was pretty busy with a few projects on hand. I would try to get all the draft post(s) published as soon as possible but to compensate, I have invited a few well-known bloggers to guest post(s) some of their home-style dishes and bakes.

Today's let put our hands together and welcome Nami from "Just One Cookbook". I know Nami through her comments on my blog a few months back. From her blog link I also get to know her better as well as exploring her wonderful recipes collection on her home-style Japanese Cuisines. She is also the one who help me to look up recipes on Japanese website regarding the Japanese Steamed Cake which I wish to learn more about it. Today I am so happy to invite Nami to Cuisine Paradise to share her classic “Chicken Karaage” recipe with us and I sure you would like it as much as we do. Enjoy!

Hello readers of Cuisine Paradise! Usually, I’m just the same as you, a fan enjoying Ellena’s delicious creations. She was generous to invite me to contribute a recipe on her site so today I will share one of my family’s favorite Japanese dish, Chicken Karaage (鶏の唐揚げ) recipe. I am a dedicated visitor to Ellena’s site and her mouth watering photos always make me hungry. With her extensive library of recipes from around the world, I learned so much from Ellena and especially Chinese and Southeast Asian cooking techniques. Personally I’ve used multiple recipes from her site to feed my family lunch and dinner and her website has been a great inspirational resource.

Chicken Karaage is a classic Japanese fried chicken dish. It’s a very common Japanese home cooking recipe and many Japanese restaurants including Izakaya (Japanese tapas) offer it in many countries all over the world. You might also find them as a main dish in lunch teishoku (meal set) at restaurants or bento box (lunch box) you buy from Japanese supermarkets. Usually the chicken is marinated in a mix of soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and lightly coated with potato/corn starch mix, then finally deep fried. However, each family has different way of preparing it, and here is mine that my family loves.

I hope you enjoy my Chicken Karaage recipe and thank you so much Ellena for having me!

Chicken Karaage

Difficulty: Modearate
Cooking Time: 60 minutes (excluding marinade time)
Makes: 5-8 servings

Ingredients:

5-10 Chicken thigh fillets, cut into 2 inch pieces (make sure each piece is about the same size so it takes about the same amount of time to deep fry.)

Seasonings
¼ onion, grated
½ Tbsp. ginger (1.5 inch ginger), grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp. cooking sake
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup corn starch (Please adjust if necessary. If you use 10 chicken thighs, probably about ½ cup)

Oil for deep frying

A couple of lemon wedges
Ichimi Togarashi (Japanese red chili pepper flakes) (optional)
Green onion for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. Put chicken in a Ziploc bag and combine all the ingredients for Seasonings in a bowl and mix all together.

2. Pour the Seasonings into the Ziploc bag and rub the chicken well with hands. Keep it in the fridge for at least 1 hour, preferably 3-4 hours.

3. In a wok, add oil to about half way full and heat it on medium high heat. When you put a chopstick in the oil and bubbles start to appear around the tip, the oil temperature is now around 180C (356F) and ready for deep frying.

4. When oil is ready, take out the Ziploc bag from the fridge and transfer the chicken into a bowl and discard the marinade (liquid). Then add corn starch and mix quickly. You don’t need to mix it evenly (as you see in the picture below). The uneven coating gives each piece its unique texture.

5. Place each piece of chicken separately into the oil. Do not overcrowd the wok, fry maximum 5 pieces at a time. If you put a lot of chicken in the oil, the temperature will drop quickly and chicken end up absorbing too much oil. Make sure the oil temperature stays around 180C (356F) at all time.

1. Deep fry for 90 seconds.
2. Transfer the chicken onto a wire rack (if not, paper towel) to drain the oil for 4 minutes,
3. Deep fry again for 45 seconds, or until golden brown.

Transfer the chicken onto a wire rack to drain the oil. Before you start the next batch, skim/remove leftover crumbs from the oil in order to keep it clean.

6. Serve the chicken with lemon wedges. Squeeze the lemon right before you eat. You can dip in Ichimi Togarashi if you enjoy spicy chicken.


For more Japanese home-sytle recipes, you can refer to Nami website at Just One Cookbook for more recipe ideas.

Which is your favourite Premium Ice-Cream And Flavour?

As a mum with a young kid at home, our freezer compartment is always fill with either one/two tubs of our family after meal dessert - "ice-cream". And our usual all-time favourite will be either Chocolate/Cookies and Cream for my boy whereas Vanilla for me in order to make my enhance my root beer float or serve as a topper for my homemade brownies or crepes.

Sometime I always think we are so fortunate to live in Singapore whereby we can easily access to a wide range of Ice-Creams either manufactured in local or air-flown from overseas. And as you can see from the above photo, there are so many different brands of ice-cream from budget to premium displaying in the fridge area waiting for you to pick it up.

Often some of the loyalty brands which attracts most of the consumers will be like Haggen Dazs or Ben and Jerry's whereby they always come in a bundle promotion of S$20++ for two tubs in assorted flavours that you can choose from.

On top of all those familiar ice-cream brands, this month from July onwards you can find another 6 different flavours from New Zealand Natural(NZN) sitting side by side with those premium brands EXCLUSIVELY only in all Cold Storage Supermarket outlets island wide. And I am sure this is a great news for NZN consumers like us where we can now enjoy our favourite premium ice-creams at more accessible areas rather running down to their outlets in town or east side areas.

For curiosity, last week I also did a quick survey on my facebook page(Cuisine Paradise) to see what's the usual trend of getting ice-cream for home consumers base loyalty brands or promotion factors. If you are interested to find out more about their comments, you can follow the link HERE or you can also drop me your view/comments here base on:-

~ What's your criteria for choosing a tub of Premium Ice-cream? Is it because of its unique flavour, process of making(ie. fat free), ingredients or(ie. using fresh fruits) OR?

~ What makes you continue to purchase your usual premium ice-cream with a particular flavour that you insists of? (example: Haggen Dazs's Green Tea, Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter or New Zealand Natural Hokey Pokey)


Hope to see your views regarding  your favourite brand and flavour soon.