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Tag Archives: truffles

8 1/2 Otto E Mezzo Bombana, Central, Hong Kong

27 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by denisegan in Italian, Restaurant review, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

alexander house restaurants, alexandra house, black truffles, butter, cavatelli, caviar, central, central restaurants, chanterelle mushrooms, fresh bread, Hong kong, Ice Cream, italian, italian cuisine, lobster, lobster bisque, Otto, Otto e Mezzo, otto e mezzo bombana, parmesan, Pasta, pear tart, restaurant review, risotto, scampi, seared tuna, shellfish, tagliolini, truffle, truffle emulsion, truffle ice cream, truffles

 Just got back from Hong Kong and had the opportunity to have a meal at this restaurant. It is apparently the only Italian restaurant outside of Italy to have received 3 Michelin stars, having been awarded 3 stars by the 2012 Michelin Guide Hong Kong and Macau. I was so lucky to get a reservation at the last minute, thanks to a friend of my sister’s!

My goal for the night… EAT ALL THE TRUFFLES! I’ve been so tempted by all the photos of truffles coming out on instagram from this restaurant, as well as my sister who also ate there a week before I went to Hong Kong. So yes… we didn’t go for the degustation menu but what we ordered seemed like a more expensive degustation by itself! Such that the Caucasian women on the tables next to us looked over at us in disgust at the amount of food coming to our table for just 2 of us ;D We are Asian, and we are naturally greedy. Plus the dishes are mostly dainty and in small portions!

We ordered 2 starters, 3 pastas, 1 main and 2 desserts. Even the waiter was aghast. No matter! I looked forward to a great meal and wasn’t disappointed at all. 

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 The amuse bouche came first, though I didn’t catch what it was. Could very well be a blend of fruit and cheese? I can’t really tell what it was. Quite refreshing though.IMG_4235.JPG

 Yes, the bread basket…. the bread is warm! I loved the foccacia! Its the one on the top right. It had a crispy top with some sun-dried tomato and olive baked onto the surface and warm fluffy insides. It’s been so long since I had good bread at a restaurant! I only ate the focaccia but my friend loved the brown bread beside it. Again it had that crunch to it as you bite into the bread, but yet you don’t have to gnaw it to death to take a bite out of it. The waiter had to top up our bread basket with fresh warm bread. How embarassing… and we kept on eating even the 2nd basket.IMG_4237.JPG

 Luckily, our first appetizer arrived in time to stop us. This is seared tuna topped with caviar with some dainty salad. They were so nice to split the portion into two plates for us, so this was my portion. I could have sworn that the tuna is of the akami type, the leaner part of the tuna. It certainly had that ruby red hue to it. But when I bit into it, it had all the full flavour of seared fatty tuna. It was beautiful, along with that gorgeous mountain of caviar in unison with a slightly tart and rich sauce.

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 Next, the scampi topped with truffle shavings. The scampi carpaccio is fresh, in some sort of olive oil emulsion if I’m not mistaken. It is similar to the truffle tai carpaccio at Aoki but I prefer the texture of tai compared to the scampi. Plus the flavours didn’t blend as well as the truffle tai carpaccio. So while this was nice, it wasn’t one of the must haves for the night. I hear that there is an octopus version of this that is really nice too.

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Next up, the pasta dishes.

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Shellfish cavatelli in a delicious seafood bisque with chanterelle mushrooms. Sometimes this is topped with sea urchin, but I think that could be seasonal. This was amazing! And also half a portion as my friend and I shared the cavatelli as well. The seafood bisque was full flavoured and bursting with ocean goodness. It wasn’t heavy at all and left us unabashedly scraping at the bottom of the bowl to get at every last drop. The pasta, while I wouldn’t normally order pasta in this style, is great with the bisque and the perfectly cooked shellfish. Nice bite and texture to it but I’d say the shellfish and bisque were the stars of the dish to me.

More pasta dishes up next, we couldn’t decide between the risotto (which was highly recommended by my sister) and the more traditional tagliolini (which was highly recommended by the waitress), so she suggested we take both in a small size. We happily took her suggestion to heart….

When both dishes came, a waiter meticulously shaved… and shaved… and shaved more… and more black truffle all over the pasta until you can no longer see any pasta! How generous! (Obviously this was going to be expensive but when you’re eating, all good reason flies out the window)

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 Truffle… with pasta.IMG_4257.JPG

This is the risotto, I’m not sure why its green again but it was well cooked with a nice bite to it. You can’t really tell in the picture but both pastas had a ring of dark sauce around it. I’m assuming this is the truffle emulsion and it tasted like a dense, truffled wild mushroom soup. Together with the risotto it added more depth to an already rich and aromatic dish. It is a really small serving, however, you can probably finish it in a couple of spoonfuls, just enough to savour and appreciate the mix of earthy and nutty flavours in this gorgeous dish.

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 This is the homemade tagliolini in a creamy, smooth butter and parmesan sauce with truffle emulsion in a ring around the golden mound of al dante pasta. Classic pairing for truffles. It has that super cheesy and creamy taste that I love, but with the truffle emulsion, it helps to bring a different layer and richness to cut into the cheesiness. Very decadent! Along with the truffles, it was to die for. Too bad I only had a bite ;(

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 Our lobster main, cooked perfectly, still had that balance between raw and cooked in the center which I really liked. Texture-wise the lobster had a smooth cut to it so that it is still retained that creamy texture. Again…that sauce/broth that came with it? Amazing. I’m not sure if its the same broth as before with the pasta, but it had that same full flavoured brine to it.

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 Finally we were ready for dessert. This is the tiramisu ice cream which was actually not bad! I always scoffed at the idea of truffle ice cream. Lovely gold flakes in its presentation and nestled in fresh whipped cream and surrounded by fresh black truffle shavings. I still prefer my hazelnut ice creams though ;p

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 This pear tart came highly recommended by my sister. Its got an almost wafer thin flaky crust topped with very delicately sliced pears. I must try to make this one day!!! Very warm, slightly spiced and crispy dessert which ended the meal perfectly.

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 The waiter congratulated us upon finishing our meal. *Shy*IMG_4289.JPG

 Obviously it cost a bomb, but in comparison to some other top restaurants, this isn’t too bad after all. I think the a la carte would be better than the degustation. Also, if you go during the white truffle season, or black winter truffle season, the experience will be so much better as nothing beats the aroma of the Italian truffles! Our favourites for the night were the seared tuna, all the pastas, the lobster and the pear tart. ❤

8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana
Shop 202, 2/F, Alexandra House, 5-17 Des Voeux Road Central, Central, Hong Kong
中環德輔道中5-17號歷山大廈2樓202號舖
Reservation: Tel: +852 2537 8859 Fax: +852 2537 8895, info@ottoemezzobombana.com
Opening Hours: 12:00p – 10:00pm (Mon-Sat, Closed on Sun)

Just for fun, I’ve included a couple of recipes from Otto’s website. I’m sure I’ll never be able to make it as well as they do despite them openly sharing the recipes like this!

Homemade Cavatelli shellfish ragout and sea urchin

For 1 pax

70gr cavatelli

5gr sea Urchin
15gr scampi (no shell)
15gr octopus
20gr snapper
15gr lobster (no shell)
30gr diced cherry tomato
5gr chopped garlic
50gr lobster stock
50gr seafood soup
3gr basil
salt
white pepper
dry chilli

 

Preparation:

– Seafood: cut the scampi, octopus, snapper and Lobster into small dices, marinate with extra virgin olive oil, salt and white pepper
– pan-fry the garlic and dry chilli until golden color, put on side
– cook the diced cherry tomatoes in medium heat, add lobster stock and seafood soup
– separately, pan-fry the seafood and mix with garlic chilli, basil
– add seafood-tomato sauce
– cook the cavatelli in saltwater for 3 minutes
– mix with the sauce and cook for another 3 min
– transfer onto a plate, garnish with sea urchin on top

Tajima Short Rib and Beef Tenderloin, Red Wine and Plum Sauce, Whipped Potato

Red wine and plum sauce, whipped potato

160 gr short rib (big squared)
180 gr beef tenderloin (wagyu)
100 gr carrots
100 gr celery
80 gr onion
80 gr leek
100 gr Italian tomato
5 gr garlic
1 pcs bay leaf
20 gr parma ham
40 gr porto wine
40 gr red wine
160 gr veal stock
30 gr dry plum
8 gr rosemary
60 gr extra virgin olive oil

Preparation of base sauce:
•    Saut all the vegetables in a big bowl until they are soft
•    Put the ham, plum, porto and red wine in the bowl. Cook everything in the bowl until the alcohool is evaporated. After put the veal stock

Preparation:
•    Pan fried the short rib until a golden colour and put in the bowl with the base sauce
•    Put the bowl in oven at 200 degree for 2 hours.
•    Then take out the short rib cut big squared and the base sauce strim it
•    When the serve take out the short rib and heat again in sauce, and pan fried the beef tenderloin in pan.

Coffee Trio of Tiramisu, Warm Coffee Tart and Crunchy Coffee Ice Cream

 

For 4 pax

For the Tiramisù

•    48 gr yolk
•    40 gr sugar
•    120 gr whipped Cream
•    200 gr mascarpone

Mix up egg yolk with Sugar (Sabayon), melt the gelatin and combine all the ingredients together

For the Coffee Gelly

•    160 gr espresso
•    60 gr sugar

Heat the espresso with sugar

For the sponge

•    64 gr ground almond
•    20 gr cake flour
•    80 gr icing sugar
•    40 gr sugar
•    132 gr egg white

Sift all the dried ingredients. Make meringue with sugar and egg white. Fold in the dried ingredients with meringue and spread on the tray. Bake 180 degree for 12 minute.

For the Coffee tart

•    4 pcs egg yolk
•    80 gr sugar
•    128 gr milk
•    20 gr coffee powder
•    56 gr coffee bean
•    320 gr cream

Roast the coffe bean for 10 minutes at 200。and add into the boiling milk. Infuse 30 minutes. Mix sugar and egg yolk and add the cold cream. Mix the coffee powder with warm milk, combine all the mixture and sift. Bake at 110 degree for 35-40 min.

For the Coffee Ice Cream

•    800 gr milk
•    240 gr cream
•    120 gr coffee Bean
•    70 gr milk powder
•    50 gr yolk
•    180 gr sugar
•    20 gr coffee powder
•    30 gr water

Roast the coffee bean and add into boiling milk and cream. Cook like a custard

 

White truffle series part 1: Garlic soy lamb with white truffles

04 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by denisegan in Home Cooking, Lamb

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

aluminium foil, baked, dinner, easy lamb recipe, easy meals, easy meat recipe, easy recipe, garlic, lamb, mains, meat, soy sauce, truffle lamb, truffle oil, truffles, white winter truffles

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This is a super easy recipe, all you need is a rack of lamb, some chopped up garlic, soy sauce and some white pepper. And then you shove it in the oven. I used to make this in university when I could spare the money for some lamb meat (definitely did not fancify it with truffles back then!), and I ate it with rice. It made for a really satisfying meal!

This time around I made the dish again along with my other truffle themed dishes:-

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Top left; uni mixed with sushi rice topped with ikura, truffles and more uni

Centre: Sea bream/tai sashimi with chopped canned black summer truffles in truffle oil, fleur de sel and shaved white truffles. I’ve made this before with black winter truffles

Bottom right: Garlic soy lamb with white truffles

Bottom left: Uni sushi with truffles, japanese mayonnaise, chives and white truffles

Here are a couple more pictures of the sashimi, won’t be doing up recipe posts on it as I’ve done it before:

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(Yes, I bought a mountain of uni in honour of the white truffle! Hello cholesterol!)20131031-154911.jpg

Ingredients for the trio of truffle carpaccio dish (yeah well it was supposed to be a carpaccio but truth be told I bought it as sashimi)20131031-154931.jpg

Chopped canned black trufflesIMG_6674 20131031-155120.jpg

Here’s a peak of the monster white truffle…20131031-155027.jpg

Ingredients (for 1 pax):

20131031-154752.jpg(Please ignore the ice wine, balsamic vinegar and honey that’s in the photo… I had initially wanted to make a separate sauce for the lamb but I found that the sauce from the lamb after cooking was more than sufficient!)

  • 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 small rack of lamb, around 200g with the bone – this was a really small rack of lamb, thus only feeds one person
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • white pepper to taste
  • 1 tsp white truffle oil (optional)
  • white truffle shavings to top (optional)

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius
  • Place the room temperature lamb in a sheet of aluminium foil large enough to entirely wrap the lamb.
  • Rub in the soy sauce, minced soy sauce and a dash of white pepper into the lamb

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  • Place 1 tbsp of water into the sheet before wrapping up the lamb.
  • Place the lamb in the oven for about 35 minutes for a pink centre (you can adjust the temperature slightly higher and/or leave it in the oven for longer if you like it well done)
  • Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes at room temperature.
  • Shave white truffles over the top and serve

20131031-155245.jpgmmmmm…

Truffle part 7: Mushroom, Egg & Cheese Pastry with truffles and Salad with lemon mayo honey dressing

06 Monday May 2013

Posted by denisegan in Bread, Breakfast and Brunch, Eggs, Healthy, Home Cooking, Lunch, Salad, Snack/Light Meals, Starter

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

almonds, appetizer, brunch, cheddar, cheese, Egg, egg and cheese pastry, egg and cheese pastry with truffles, healthy, light meals, lunch, mushrooms, pastry, Puff pastry, salad, Snack, starter, truffle oil, truffles

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Almost finished with the truffle series! Here I made two simple dishes with the truffles, a puff pastry and a salad. Really easy and yummy stuff.IMG_4661

Puff Pastry Ingredients (for 1 pax)

  1. A quarter of ready made puff pastry (I used Jus-rol, the 500g packet)
  2. Grate a good handful of your favourite cheese (I used cheddar)
  3. Sliced mushrooms (about 3 fresh swiss brown mushrooms)
  4. 1 teaspoon of truffle oil
  5. 1 egg
  6. 1 egg white to glaze
  7. Black pepper and salt

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Salad Ingredients (for 1-2 pax depending on how greedy)

  1. 7-8 almonds sliced (If you can buy them pre sliced, that’s even better
  2. Handful of cranberries
  3. Juice and rind from half a yellow lemon (omit the rind if you don’t like it)
  4. 3 tbsp mayo
  5. 1-2 tbsp honey
  6. Enough salad leaves for 1-2 pax

Instructions

  1. Roll out the ready made pastry into a square and trim off the sides so that it’s nice and neat. 
  2. Preheat the oven to 220°C (200°C for fan assisted ovens). You should follow the instructions printed on the wrapping, oven temperatures and timings may differ.
  3. Cut a little more of the ready made pastry and roll it out to make 4 strips, you will need to place each strip at the edge of the pastry square so it holds the ingredients (and egg) in.
  4. Arrange the cheese and mushrooms in the pastry, leaving space in the middle. The egg will be added here later on. In the meantime, brush the pastry with the egg white for that golden brown colour
  5. Bake the pastry for about 12 minutes (this would depend on the total time you need to bake the pastry. If you need to bake it for 20 minutes, add the egg 3-4 minutes before completion). If I remember correctly I baked it for 15 minutes, so I slid the egg into the middle after 12 minutes. You can add more cheese around the egg after that if you wish. Then drizzle the truffle oil over the pastry.
  6. Once the pastry is golden brown and the egg is cooked, remove from oven.

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  1. While the pastry is cooking, wash and drain the salad leaves, slice the almonds and fry them til golden in color. Pat the excess oil off almonds with a kitchen towel and set aside.
  2. Mix the lemon juice and rind, mayo and honey together in a separate bowl.
  3. Place salad leaves in a salad bowl and toss with the honey lemon and mayo mixture. Add cranberries, sliced almonds and shave some of that black truffle on top. Serve.
  4. Season pastry with black pepper (and, if you chose a mild, not-so-salty cheese, some salt) and add some truffle shavings. Eat!

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You can add other things to your salad, I added cherry tomatoes to mine.IMG_4672

If you like your egg less cooked then just cook it for 1.5-2 minutes before removing from the oven. For me, as long as the whites are cooked I’m all good.IMG_4666

Truffles Part 5: Cream of Mushroom soup with creme fraiche and truffles

14 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by denisegan in Bread, Lunch, Soup, Starter, Western

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

appetizer, black truffle, brown mushrooms, cream, cream of mushroom soup, creme fraiche, dinner, hand blender, mushroom, mushroom soup, Soup, starter, truffles, western, white truffle oil

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I love mushroom soup. Even though I’ve been eating canned Campbell mushroom soup for most of my life, nothing beats freshly made cream of mushroom soup. I attempted it for the first time as part of my truffle menu and used portobello and those nice swiss brown mushrooms. Other recipes call for er… wilder varieties of mushroom but since its just me and my helper, I decided to just use mushrooms that I’m used to. The end result should be a creamy thick soup of mushrooms and enhanced just by some chopped parsley, truffle shavings and perhaps a drop or two of truffle oil.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

100g butter

500g mushrooms (I used 250g portobello and 250g swiss brown mushrooms)

350ml chicken stock

400ml water

100g cooking cream

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp of creme fraiche per bowl of soup (you can adjust this if you like)

Fresh truffle shavings

1 tsp chopped English parsley per bowl

Salt and black pepper for seasoning

Instructions

1. Wash the mushrooms thoroughly and drain.

2. Slice the mushrooms to the same thickness (otherwise you’ll get inconsistencies in texture after blending)

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3. Melt the butter in a sauce pan large enough to hold 2 litres of water. I used a wok as I’m more comfortable with it.

4. Fry the garlic and mushrooms together for 5 minutes. The mushrooms will release some liquid.

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5. Add chicken stock and water and bring to the boil before turning down the heat. Cover with the lid and let it stew for about 30 minutes.

6. Add the cream and let it simmer for another 3-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

7. Blitz the soup with a hand blender. Be careful when you do this as you don’t want the hot liquid to fly all over the kitchen and onto you! IMG_4613

I transferred the mixture into a mixing jug for blitzing.

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8. Blitz until your desired consistency. I like mine slightly chunky

9. Ladle into soup bowl and top with creme fraiche, truffle shavings, parsley and a little white truffle oil if you like.

Serve with bread! IMG_0271

Truffle Part 4: Foie Gras and fried onions crostini with truffles

10 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by denisegan in Bread, Breakfast and Brunch, Snack/Light Meals, Starter, Western

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

appetizer, black truffles, bread, brunch, crostini, foie gras, foie gras pate, onions, starter, truffles, western

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I’ve previously tried a foie gras pate and fried onions combinations. I just thought I’d try something one step further and use foie gras lobes and top everything with my beautiful winter black truffles ❤

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Ingredients (Serves 2 pax)

4 slices of french baguette bread

2 lobes of foie gras at room temperature

1/2 a large onion

Black winter truffle shavings

Fleur de sel and black pepper

Instructions

1. Heat some oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the onions. Fry until golden brown and caramelized.

2. This is where I made a mistake, I used the same pan to fry the foie gras and didn’t wash it. The pan should have been dry and hot as foie gras is already oily as it is. But as I reused the pan there was some residual oil and bits of fried onion T_____T. Not that it makes much difference to the taste, it just looked bad afterwards.IMG_4625

3. Sear the foie gras for about 45 seconds on each side.

4. Remove from the pan and slice thickly (see above).

5. Lightly toast the baguette slices IMG_4627

6. Assemble your crostini! Place some of the caramelized onions on the toasted baguette, arrange the foie gras slices on it and season with fleur de sel and black pepper. For the finishing touch, just go crazy shaving the truffles all over the plate! IMG_0305

Its a little hard eating the crostini as bits of onion tend to fall off but its totally worth it. The fatty rich foie gras with the sweet onions and delicate aromatic truffles truly make a heavenly bite!IMG_0317

Truffles Part 1 – Carpaccio with trio of truffles

01 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by denisegan in Fish, Snack/Light Meals, Starter

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

black truffle, black winter truffle, canned truffles, carpaccio, carpaccio with trio of truffles, carpaccio with truffles, fusion, sashimi, starter, tai, truffle oil, truffles, white truffle oil

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So I decided to indulge in my newfound love for truffles. I ordered two black winter truffles and it arrived today! Super excited. Its now stored in rice in my fridge, and accordingly I placed eggs in the same container just to maximize the use of the truffles. My fridge smells like truffles now mmmm.

This is a dish I had at Aoki, a japanese restaurant in Singapore, and its pretty easy to replicate. It is also foolproof and perfect as a starter. The chopped canned truffle adds a little bite to the dish and the fleur de sel not only makes the dish look aesthetically pleasing, it also gives a briny crunch to the fish that, on many levels, is so different from your ordinary table salt.

Will be putting up several truffle-themed posts, this is just the first 😉IMG_0211 IMG_0212

They’re pretty big aren’t they?IMG_0218

Ingredients

1 tbsp Truffle oil

Tai (sea bream) sashimi grade sliced thinly

Fleur de sel

1 summer black truffle from a jar

Generous shavings from a fresh black winter truffle

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Instructions

1) Chop up your summer truffle into little chunks. Don’t mince it too finely as we want some texture to this dish.

2) Arrange the fish on the plate

3) Sprinkle the chopped truffle on top of the fish and drizzle the truffle oil.

4) Add shavings of black winter truffle on top and season with fleur de sel.

Enjoy the heady rush of truffle!IMG_0239

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