Food Photography Workshop, Manila, Oct 26 – 27, 2009

It has been a while since I last blogged. Apart from being very busy with my simultaneous interpreting work, I’ve attended a food photography workshop in Manila and right after I came back from the workshop, proceeded with 3 lessons of the cuisine class at Taylor’s University College. But let me talk about the food photography workshop before I get swarmed by more work madness in these two weeks.

The food photography workshop was organized by the Philippine Center for Creative Imaging (PCCI) in Makati, not far away from Manila City. The instructor, Mark Floro, is one of the most sought-after food photographers in the Philippines and his client list includes Chow King, Jollibee, Manila Peninsula, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Purefoods, Robinson’s Convenience Stores, and San Miguel Corporation.

The workshop was very hands-on, we learned and practised various forms of natural and studio lighting, photographing food that has been meticulously prepared by a team of dedicated food stylists. The food stylists also shared with us some of the food styling tricks used in the industry.

It was a very inspiring workshop for me, I got to learn about new techniques, and also to improve or correct my existing techniques. What’s more important, is that as long as you know the right techniques, and understand how light works, you can produce wonderful food images even though you only have cheap lighting sources.

The workshop was very well organized, everything was prepared with much care and dedication. I would highly recommend this workshop to anyone who is interested to learn about the basics food photography, or even food photographers who would like to improve their skills.

I’m posting some of the photos I shot at the workshop, they are not that fantastic but with the knowledge and techniques I learned, I hope to be able to produce better photos in future.

Thanks Mark for your dedication, patience and the willingness to share with us your expertise and experience, you are wonderful!

Information on the food photography workshop can be found here.

Food styling & photography: Lamb kofta served with pita bread

This a tweaked version of the original lamb kofta I made at my cooking class last week. The lighting was bad in the kitchen, so I figured out it would be good to take another shot with improved styling and different presentation. It is a very beautiful dish to present, easy to prepare, and most of all, delicious! It is a very good finger food as well, and great for picnics too!

I couldn’t find minced lamb in Village Grocer in Bangsar Village and when I went to another butcher, they were closing and couldn’t mince the lamb for me. So I bought 2 lamb burger patties instead. I made the lamb burger patties into oval shape on skewers and grilled them in the oven, then served the yogurt and mint dressing separately. The rest of the procedure was essentially the same. For the recipe and original version of the lamb kofta I learned in class, go here.

Food photography: Kaffir Lime

Okay, I openly confess that I am addicted to porn, lime porn that is haha…I just can’t seem to have enough of them lately, partly because of my newly formed company, Zesty Concepts, which got me started on a series of photographs related to different types of citrus and their zests. Lime green is the corporate colour of Zesty Concepts, and I absolutely adore lime now! They are so full of vibrancy and energy, and the colour of the fruit and leaves is absolutely refreshing and eye-pleasing.

Kaffir lime leaves is a key ingredient used to make the famous and spicy Thai tom yam soup, it has a distinct and unique citrus flavour and aroma, which is not replaceable with any other lime leaves. The leaves are also widely used in other Thai, Indochinese, Malaysian and Indonesian cuisine.

Traditionally, the fruit of the kaffir lime has been used to improve skin and hair follicle growth. I’ve also heard Malaysians using it in the bath water for anti-bacterial function. Extracts and essential oil from the fruit are gaining popularity in aromatherapy.

So what did I do with the fruit after taking photos? I used it in my bath water and rubbed the rind on the skin…smelling fresh and feeling rejuvenated!

So feast your eyes on my kaffir lime series today….plucked fresh from the tree of my friend’s garden! Thanks Melanie!

All photos naturally lit, and shot using my signature Canon TS 90 mm f/2.8 lens. All photos have been slightly edited with Photoshop (only levels and contrast adjusted).

Also showcased here is an old photo from my archives, tom yam soup cooked with kaffir lime leaves (from my backyard):

Cooking Lessons: International Certification in Cuisine at Taylor’s University College Malaysia – Lesson 2

Today I attended the second lesson of my International Certification in Cuisine at Taylor’s University College Malaysia. I actually quite like the lessons, always packed with new things to learn and hands on practice. Today the menu was quite elaborate, with lamb kofta served with pita bread, coriander flavoured pumpkin soup, and glazed duck breast with semolina and jackfruit. We had so much to prepare and cook that there was basically no time in between for me to shoot the dishes I prepared. It was fun though, and the dishes were delicious!

Today the dishes involved quite a bit of dicing, one of the most important basic skills in Western cuisine. From onion to garlic to mint to red chili, from larger cubes to tiny pieces, we got to polish our dicing skills for sure!

Caption: Dicing onion…Chef Rex did it with such a breeze…the secret lies in not cutting away the root part of the onion totally…so that you can hold that with your other hand while the hand holding the knife will be slicing the onion away…sort of acts as an anchor.

Caption: Fine dicing chili and English parsley for the lamb kofta.

The first dish we prepared, lamb kofta with pita bread, was one of the best pita bread with lamb that I’ve tasted in a long long time! And it was my first time cooking lamb kofta too. The cooked lamb kofta was finished with a yogurt, mint and cumin dressing, so light and refreshing! It gave an Indian-Middle Eastern flavour that was indeed very appealing and appetizing! Plus it’s so easy to make that you can be done in under 20 minutes!

Procedure to cook lamb kofta with pita bread:
Caption (From left to right, top to bottom): Frying the lamb kofta with olive oil, diced onion and chili; grill pita bread on a hot griddle after lightly brushed with olive oil; prepare dressing (3 tbsp yogurt, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1/2 tsp cumin powder, finely diced mint, shallot, garlic and chili, seasoned with pinch of salt and pepper); mix dressing with cooked lamb kofta.

Final results (these were made by me):

Next, we made coriander flavoured pumpkin soup. Before I went to class today, I had a glimpse of the menu, thinking to myself, “Pumpkin soup…how hard can it be???”

Well, I was quite wrong. First, we had to prepare chicken stock (this was done right at the start of the class today, as it took about 30 minutes to boil the stock). Then we had to sweat (means frying with fats on very low heat, trying not to damage the colour of the ingredients) the pumpkin, leek, onion and coriander before adding in the chicken stock and let it simmer until pumpkin soften. Followed by blending the soup in a jar blender before finishing off with cream and seasoning. It’s probably the most elaborate pumpkin soup I’ve ever made, but the result was absolutely amazing – rich and flavourful!

Procedure to make pumpkin soup:
Firstly, prepare chicken stock. As you can see, the stock was prepared with chicken bones and vegetables (shallots, leek, celery, carrot, thyme). Again, cold water was used instead of hot water to give a clear stock.

Caption: Sweating the vegetables for the pumpkin soup (left), and boiling the soup after adding in the chicken stock.

Caption: Finishing off the pumpkin soup. After blending the soup when the pumpkin cubes become soft, return soup to stove on low heat, cream was added, and seasoned with salt and pepper. The soup was finished with a light touch of whipped cream on top before serving.

My version (too much whipped cream on top!):

The last dish was the most elaborate and time consuming. There were 4 main steps involved in preparing the glazed duck breast dish.

First, marinate the duck breast with crushed green, red pepper (you can use fresh or canned ones) and Sichuan pepper, balsamic vinegar, honey and rock salt for around 30 minutes (Our duck breasts were imported from France!):

Then, caramelize sugar before adding balsamic vinegar on very low heat. Add in the duck breast with the skin on the pan/skillet together with the marinade. Leave for a minute or so before finishing off the duck breast in the oven.

While duck breast is cooking in the oven, prepare semolina. Fry olive oil with finely diced garlic, dried chili, thinly sliced shallot and curry leaves. Add semolina flour, stir evenly. Then add chicken stock and cook for about 5 minutes while stirring constantly. Cooked semolina flour should have a thick and starchy texture.

Next, prepare jackfruit. Dice jackfruit into small cubes, and finely dice coriander leaves. Add balsamic vinegar and stir well.

To finish and serve the duck breast, remove from oven, slice thickly and serve on the semolina and with jackfruit with balsamic vinegar.

Chef Rex’s version (see how delicate his is compared to mine below haha):

And my version. (Overcooked!)

After thoughts:
Again, the lighting wasn’t very good as I just shot with whatever lights available in the kitchen. I didn’t have much time to shoot the dishes that I made myself, we were running out of time, but I really enjoyed it as I learned a few new skills and to fine tune what I already know. I didn’t attach the full recipes here as I am not sure if Taylor’s College would let me publish them online!

For story on the first lesson of the cooking class, go here.

Guacamole & tortilla chips

I’ve never been able to make guacamole correctly until I met Inge and Ralph from Rhode Island, USA in Ho Chi Minh City when I was on vacation during Chinese New Year this year. Inge and Ralph are a very sweet couple whom I shared table with at a fine dining restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, and ended up having coffee and drinks after the meal.

Inge originated from Mexico, and is a conference and court Spanish interpreter. I was so excited when she told me she was Mexican, and the words just poured out of my mouth: “How do you make good guacamole?????” (guacamole originated from Mexico)

“All you need is three basic ingredients,” Ralph said. “Avocado, cilantro (coriander), onion. No garlic, but add salt and pepper if you like.”

When I came back, I decided to improvise on the recipe. My first attempt was to add lemon juice, to prevent the guacamole from browning after being prepared. But something was not right, still not good enough.

The second time I made it, I tried lime juice, inspired by another friend who uses that in her guacamole. I liked it! And the third time I made it again, I added chopped tomato and served it with tortilla chips for my friends’ housewarming party. And guess what? The guests finished everything!

So here’s my version of guacamole, a very easy appetizer to make and definitely delicious!

Ingredients
1 ripe avocado
3 stalks cilantro (coriander leaves), roughly chopped
1/2 small onion, chopped into small squares
1/2 medium tomato, seeds removed and cut into small cubes
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp lime juice
1 red chili, chopped finely (optional)

Steps:

1. Cut avocado into half vertically, twist gently with two hands to separate the two halves. Remove stone by poking the end of a sharp knife into the bottom of the stone and holding the avocado firmly with another hand, gently tilt the stone with the knife to remove it. Be careful with this step to avoid cutting your fingers.
2. Mash the avocado with a fork, add in the lime juice, onion, cilantro, and chopped chili, mix well. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Serve with tortilla chips as a dip.

Note: Inge said that the lime juice will dilute the sweet taste of the avocado and may even make the guacamole bitter and sour, but I like it . I guess I have a different taste bud compared to the Mexicans, who created guacamole, their world-renowned appetizer. Inge will be here visiting soon, in a week or so! I will make sure she gets to eat the best local food around, and if time permits, I may even cook something for her. And she will have to show me the real guacamole live!

Tip on choosing avocado: First, the colour. A ripe Hass avocado (this is what we normally get in Malaysia) should look purplish/blackish green. Some other varieties can be big and green and you will have to use your touch to judge. Hold the avocado with your entire palm, gently press the avocado with your thumb, it should give a little softness yet still firm. If it’s soft then it could be bruised or over ripe. One tip to ensure you don’t buy a bruised or over ripe avocado, is to buy one that is turning purplish yet still green, and still feels firm and not too soft. Leave it for one or two days and you will have the perfect ripeness when you cut it.

It’s past 1 am now and I better go to sleep! Enjoy the photos and the recipe!

Fish & vegetable curry/stew

With the pretty mini eggplants still sitting in the refrigerator, I had to figure out how to cook them. Also known as brinjal or aubergine, eggplant is a very versatile vegetable, you can create lots of dishes from it. But I am not familiar with this small variety and how they would taste like. I guess with curry, you will not go wrong. So I decided to try my fool proof fish & vegetable curry with these little beauties.

You can find eggplant in almost any countries in the world, well at least those I’ve visited. It is one of the vegetables that you can find in almost every supermarket in Europe, aside from tomato, potato, onions and garlic. I cooked this dish a number of times when I was traveling in Italy and France, where they were found in abundance. It’s very simple to make, even someone who has never cooked will be able to do this right. What’s challenging to find is the curry powder, as you may not find curry powder in every supermarket in Europe.

Back home in Malaysia, I would use fish curry powder but when I was traveling in Europe, I just basically used any curry powder that was available in the supermarket. This is the best comfort Asian food for me when the weather is cold, and to share with many people. The spiciness is very mild, so most people would be able to tolerate it. It has a sweet and sour taste, coupled with the richness from the coconut milk or milk makes it a very appetizing meal!

I cooked this dish twice in Italy, and once in France. When I cooked it for the second time in Italy, I plucked some of the vegetables fresh from the organic farm I was at, and it tasted really good, we had it with bread. It was cooked using a large 2-feet deep copper pot over wood fire. Boy, it was definitely an experience to remember! (photo here with Guenther and Matt from the farm helping me to cook the stew)

It is best to use fish with harder flesh (such as mackerel, stingray and grouper) and avoid fillet as the fish fillet tends to break up easily and you will not be able to taste the fish properly!

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 – 40 minutes
Serving: 4

Ingredients
500 g of stingray (or mackerel or grouper) , cut into small pieces of 2 cm thick, rubbed with 1/2 tsp salt and leave for 20 minutes
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 shallots (if you can’t find shallots when you travel in Europe, use small onions), sliced thinly
1 inch ginger (optional, if you can’t find at the supermarket), thinly julienned
1 medium long eggplant, cut into triangle wedges
2 large ripe tomatoes, cut each into 6 wedges
2 medium onion, cut each into 6 wedges
8 – 10 okra (ladies finger), halved (I couldn’t find okra in supermarkets in Italy and France, so I substituted with carrot or potato, cut into large chunks)
3 cabbage leaves (optional), torn into smaller pieces
2 tbsp fish curry powder (or any curry powder if you can’t find the fish one)
2 tbsp cooking oil (you can use olive oil also)
1 liter water
200 ml coconut milk (fresh or packet), substitute with milk if you can’t find coconut milk
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp lime juice (or kalamansi lime (kasturi) or lemon)

Steps:

1. Heat up oil in a large pot and fry garlic, shallot and ginger until tender.
2. Add onion wedges, eggplant and cabbage (or carrot and potato if you are using), add water and stir evenly. Close lid and leave to simmer on low heat for around 10 minutes before adding okra and tomato and simmer for another 5 minutes before adding the fish. Close the lid of the pot and continue to simmer for another 10 – 15 minutes until fish is thoroughly cooked (when the flesh is firm and no longer translucent). If you use potato, poke with a fork to check if the chunks are cooked.
3. Add in coconut milk and stir evenly. Season with sugar and salt (adjust according to your taste) and add in the lime juice, stir evenly before turning off the fire.
4. Serve hot with rice or bread.

Note: The mini eggplant turned out a bit bitter, compared to the regular long eggplant…

Food photography: Mini eggplant

Saw them today at the market and just couldn’t resist to take them home to photograph, such beautiful purple! Haven’t thought of a way to cook them yet…never cooked them before haha….

All photos naturally lit and straight from the camera. Using my Canon Tilt Shift 90 mm f/2.8 lens.

Dessert: Sago pearls with palm sugar syrup and coconut milk (Sago gula Melaka)

This is one of my favourite Malaysian desserts, which I made for dinner on the day I cooked the sweet and sour pork chop rice. I’ve not been able to get the sago pearls correctly made for a long long time. After a few failed attempts this year, I’ve decided to give it another try. The procedure is very easy, now that I know the trick, which is to boil the water first before putting in the sago…

Ingredients:
1 cup sago pearls (also known as tapioca pearls)
1.5 liter water for boiling

For palm sugar syrup:
100 g palm sugar (known as gula Melaka or gula kabung in Malaysia), chopped roughly
100 ml water
2 screwpine (pandan) leaves knotted, optional (for added fragrance)

For coconut milk mixture:
Freshly squeezed coconut milk from 1 coconut (or you can used packet coconut milk or buy fresh coconut milk from the market), added with a pinch of salt and chilled for at least 1 hour

Steps:
1. Wash sago with tap water and drain. Boil water in a medium pot and add in the drained sago when the water has reached boiling point. Keep stirring to avoid sticking to the bottom of the pot and turn off heat when sago pearls turn transparent. Drain off excess water from the sago pearls using a sieve. Spoon sago pearls into moulds and leave to cool before chilling in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
2. Boil water for the palm sugar syrup with the screwpine leaves. Keep stirring until sugar has fully dissolved. Pour out and leave to cool. Keep the syrup chilled in refrigerator.
3. When the sago pearls have set in the mould, unmould into a dessert bowl and spoon 2 tbsp of chilled palm sugar syrup over the sago pearls, and 2 – 3 tbsp of coconut milk on top. Adjust the amount of syrup and coconut milk according to your own liking.

Cooking Lessons: International Certification in Cuisine at Taylor’s University College Malaysia – Lesson 1

Today I’m going to blog about my first cooking lesson at Taylor’s University College Malaysia’s International Certification in Cuisine. The course lasts about 8 weeks, every Saturday morning. I can cook a lot of dishes, and I know many of the basic skills, but I thought it’s good to improve on things I already know, and learn new things that I don’t know.

Being a self-taught cook (aside from my home economics classes in high school), I’ve always wanted to improve cooking and preparation skills, and learn the right techniques. I’ve been pondering on attending this course for ages, but I kept delaying the thought as I either had not enough money (it costs about RM3000 or USD 850 for the entire course, inclusive of all facilities, tools and ingredients), or no time. This time, I just bit the bullet and signed up!

Some of the reasons why I chose Taylor’s are that the classes are conducted on Saturday, less chances of clashing with my projects; and very good facilities (I remember drooling away when I first saw the training kitchen when I went there to check out the course 2 years back).

My dream commercial kitchen…Every student has a workstation to themselves.

This course is more like a leisure course, specially designed for non-trained cooking enthusiasts or people who want to refresh or relearn their cooking skills. I even met the head chef of my favourite Vietnamese restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, Sao Nam! He was very surprised when he found out that I knew he was from Sao Nam haha!

Our instructor, Chef Rex is a very nice & helpful guy who patiently answers all my questions (being my inquisitive nature and my keenness to learn). He knows his stuff well, and happy to share!

We learned to cook 3 dishes: 2 appetizers (Lime marinated scallops tossed in glass noodles with julienne mango; Crispy Indian semolina breaded prawns with a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette), and a main course (Pan fried cod bedded over warm macaroni pomelo served with creamy fish sauce).

Among some of the basic skills we learned yesterday:

Captions of photos (from left to right and top to bottom): Cutting and julienning (photo of my opposite neighbour Ina from Russia), zesting lime, making fish stock, preparing & whisking vinaigrette, coating prawns before frying, frying prawns and fish.

We also learned other skills such as the proper methods to boil pasta the French and Italian way.

Some of the useful little tips which I previously did not know:
* Standard recipe for preparing basic vinaigrette is 1 part acid : 3 parts oil.
* Use cold water to add into fish stock base to get a clear stock, if hot water is used, the stock will turn out cloudy.
* When adding butter to white sauce, make sure the butter is properly chilled and solid to give better flavour, smoothness and shine.
* Herbs are divided into strong herbs and soft herbs. Strong herbs are used during cooking and flavour will stay even a few days after cooking, while soft herbs are added into the dishes just before dish is ready.
* The Basil leaf is a soft herb, while the stem is a strong herb that you can use for cooking.

We get to cook the dishes hands on and take them home to enjoy! It was certainly very fun and I definitely look forward to the next lessons!

Final results (photos of final output were poorly lit as I could only use whatever light that was available):

Appetizers: Lime marinated scallops tossed in glass noodles with julienne mango; Crispy Indian semolina breaded prawns with a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette

Main course: Pan fried cod bedded over warm macaroni pomelo served with creamy fish sauce (It’s so so so yummy and it’s the best-est cod fish dish I’ve eaten in a long time!)

Sweet & sour pork chop rice

When I was traveling in Europe from early July till mid August this year, I missed Asian cuisine so much. I don’t normally cook Asian or Chinese dishes that much at home, but if I do, it is more for sustenance or if I have foreign friends in town which prefer to dine on Chinese or Asian cuisine.

When I was in Europe, I reached my saturation point for pizza and pasta in Italy; sandwiches, salad and bread in France (I couldn’t afford nice restaurant food everyday!) after a couple of weeks. I was yearning for Asian food every evening after an exhaustive day sight seeing and walking non-stop, it’s like a comfort food when you’re tired and worn out. I’ve never loved backpackers’ hostels that much until I went to Europe! Simply because they have cooking facilities which allow me to cook up a quick delicious meal that costs a lot lesser than what you would normally pay at a nice restaurant.

The first thing after I settle in at any backpackers’ hostel, is to ask where the supermarket is, then I will check out the kitchen and cooking facilities. I normally check the hostels if they have cooking facilities, before I book them online, or email them before I book. And after that I would go to the supermarket to do an inventory to see what they sell and plan what I can prepare during the length of my stay. I have basic cooking ingredients which I carry around, but many backpacker’s hostel with cooking facilities where I stayed in Italy and France do have the basic stuff such as salt, sugar, pepper, and if you are lucky, olive oil and even flour and dry herbs/spices.

This dish was created in my hostel in Paris, which was situated right next to a small supermarket, and another bigger supermarket with more complete range of ingredients 10 minutes walk away. I made this for myself and Gary, my dorm mate from Melbourne, Australia. Most smaller supermarkets in Paris are not very well stocked, it’s not easy to find Asian ingredients, but you can still find common ingredients that enable you to cook up a delicious Asian dish within a short period of time.

I recreated this today for lunch so that I could photograph the dish, and it’s so delicious that I almost licked the plate clean! It’s very easy to prepare, fool proof, and not expensive too! Gary and I paid about €4 each for the dish + a bottle of Rosé wine! (Eating similar dish like this at an Asian restaurant in France or Italy will easily cost a few more Euros!) You can easily get all these ingredients at most supermarkets in Paris or other parts of France if you are planning to travel there.

Kids will love this too, as the sweet and sourish taste of the gravy definitely appeals to them!

Gary and I at the Lourve…

Cooking time: 20 mins
Preparation: 15 mins
Serving: 2

Ingredients:
1 medium-sized pork chop or lean pork loin, sliced about 5 mm thick, marinated for 15 minutes with salt, pepper and 1/2 tsp corn flour (this can be omitted if you find it too troublesome to get when you’re traveling)
1 sweet bell pepper (capsicum), red or green, diced into small squares
2 large ripe tomato, cut into small chunks
5 button mushroom (champignon), quartered
3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 small onion, chopped finely
3 tbsp cooking oil or olive oil
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp soy sauce (optional, if you can’t find them at the supermarket)
3 tbsp white/Rosé wine (optional, use this from the bottle that you’re going to drink later)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar
1 cup long grain Asian rice
2 cups water

Steps:

1. Cook rice. If you are staying in a backpacker’s hostel with no rice cooker or a steamer, follow this step. Wash rice with water and drain away the water. (If you use pre-cooked rice, follow the instructions on the pack) Boil the 2 cups of water in a pot and add in the rice when the water reaches boiling point, stir evenly. Turn down heat, cover with lid and cook for about 10 – 15 minutes until water is almost fully dried, turn off heat and let the remaining moisture get absorbed into the rice. This should take another 10 – 15 minutes or so. If you have a rice cooker, just cook rice (1 part of rice to 2 parts of water) using the normal procedure or you can steam them.
2. Heat oil in a deep pan, fry the pork chop slices until light brown and fragrant. Dish out and put aside.
3. Fry chopped garlic and onion with the remaining oil until tender, add tomato chunks, water and soy sauce, cook until tomato chunks turn tender and mushy.
4. Add mushrooms, bell pepper and the fried pork chop slices, cook until tender and gravy thickens. Season with sugar, salt and pepper. Serve hot with rice.

Note: You can substitute pork chop with beef steak, minced pork or beef and cook in the same manner.