Generation Kitchen

02/05/2016

Cassoulet, a traditional south-western French dish, is one of my top food highlights so far. It's rich.. It's creamy.. It's to die for!! Cassoulet is stew of confit white beans, confit duck and pork sausage.

It's the one of the few times I'd tell you to eat this and not think of the calories. It's worth 👌🏽 If only I could bring a jar of confit beans home..

01/05/2016

I definitely underestimated French food! Every meal I had was magnifique, fresh and good quality. In France, people tend to focus on growing/cooking 1 thing and doing it great, naturally. French food is about high quality fresh produce and cooking it them well. Majority of the fresh produce, if not all, are grown naturally without artificial hormones to gain more profit. And, we wonder why French people are among the slimmest and least overweight people in Europe!! 🇫🇷

This cut of beef is called entrecôte - a premium cut of beef used for steak. They served the beef soaking in what was most probably garlic butter sauce, shoestring chips and bread (of course) on the side. It was really strange getting chips but the creaminess of the potatoes was exactly what was needed to complete this dish 🙌🏽

It was so good I licked the plate clean (with bread) and it left me dreaming about how I'm gonna have to re-create this! 😍

30/04/2016

Did you know that "hot/spicy" radish is due to lack of moisture at harvest time and/or hot weathers?

I didn't eat radish before I went to France for a holiday because it was always hot. But I was staying with my extended family in France who spoke minimal English and I speak zero French, I didn't know how to say I do not eat radish. So, I thought the best way would be to at least have a bite then shake my head. That should work right?! Anyway, to my surprise, I actually ended up eating about 20 of this red babies.

They taught me to dip the radish in salt so it taste better and I think now I can say that I eat radish 😁 The French people eat simple food (most of the time) and that's something I think the rest of the world should learn to do. A plate of raw radish was served as the vegetable component of our dinner! 🇫🇷

So go grab a bunch of radish, clean it and that's your vege for tonight!

27/04/2016

Found this little churros gem in Barcelona and hands down the best one I've had 😍 You know it's a place mainly for locals when you see a tiny shop where they specialise only in churros and hot chocolate. They've run this business since 1962!!!

How to eat churros like a local:

I think I've been eating churros all wrong! The locals didn't dunk the churros into the hot chocolate but rather broke them into smaller pieces and chugged them all into the hot chocolate, allowing the churros to soak up all the hot chocolate in the cup 😋

The chocolate sauce was thick but still runny enough to drink and definitely not overly sweet (you're supposed to drink it at the end of it) and the churros was chewy and crunchy all at the same time. It's important that the churros is chewy on the inside, according to my Spanish friend anyway!

26/04/2016

Patatas bravas - one of Spain's native tapa dish. Easy and fast to prepare (great for appetisers for your next barbie) 😉

Only 4 ingredients in this dish: potatoes, mayonnaise, tomato sauce and lots of garlic for the spice. A dash of paprika and sprinkle of chopped parsley is recommended but not a necessity. Usually the potatoes (patatas) is cut into cubes and deep fried, not long like chips.

My whole time in Spain, I sort of stayed away from patatas bravas because from previous experiences eating this dish, there was nothing special about it but this one was spot on.

The garlic in the "bravas" sauce was sharp and pungent. I think I could have scared a vampire away! Probably the few times Spaniards use as much garlic as we do in our cooking 😁

25/04/2016

Calamari and lentils 😍 This is absolutely perfect for a busy weekday dish. Preparation and cooking time is only about 20 minutes.

There are literally only 5 ingredients in this dish - garlic, brown onions, green peppers (the Spanish puts it in every dish), lentils and calamari. It left me wanting more of it!! I could have had the whole pot for myself... The garlic and onion didn't overpower the simple flavour of the lentils. You can taste the flavour of each ingredients in the dish - home cooking at its finest! 😌

Serves 3
Total preparation and cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
1 can of lentils (you can use the raw ones and cook them separately)
1 green pepper (not capsicum though)
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1/3 brown onions, chopped
1 medium calamari, cleaned and cubed

Method:
1) Sautéed the garlic and onions
2) Toss in the green peppers, calamari
3) Add the lentils and allow it to simmer in the juices for 10 minutes
4) Season with salt and pepper.
5) Enjoy!

Xx

GK

24/04/2016

Paella using fideo (fee-day-ohh) was the first homecooked Spanish food I had in Barcelona (also cooked by my friend's grandmother)👌🏽I usually don't even eat pasta but this was amazing. She used the same ingredients and method of cooking as a paella but didn't have the crunchy bits on the side (it's optional).

Fideo is basically short pasta. I didn't even know Spanish people eat fideo, I always thought fideo was a Mexican staple food. But I guess that's a result of the influx of South Americans into Spain.

23/04/2016

Oops! I've been MIA for abit because I've been travelling around Europe 🙈 In Barcelona, I got the opportunity to learn how to cook paella from scratch and getting all the tips from my friend's grandmother!! It has definitely been one of the highlights so far 🙌🏽

This paella is the most traditional paella which originated from Valencia 🇪🇸 It was perfect - the rice was soft but still al dente to some extent, there was no excessive amounts of stock and had the crunchy caramelized rice bits exactly how a good paella should have!

12/03/2016

Short and sweet stay in Sekinchan, Malaysia

My favourite saying is “It is not where you go that matters, it is who you are with that matters”. And this family trip to Sekinchan was exactly it.

08/03/2016

Battered salt & pepper prawns - need I say more? 😋🍤 Recipe coming soon.