Sunday, 10 July 2011

D.O.C Pizza & Mozzarella Bar



So me and my family was scouting around Lygon street for dinner and we have heard a little publicity on DOC so thought we might go check it out. The restaurant serves authentic Italian pizzas and might I add, served the best pizzas I've ever tasted! The base was thin and crisp and they have an assorted range of toppings selection. The specials served on the day was pizza with grilled eggplant and buffalo mozzarella and pizza with roasted pumpkin and caramelised leeks. I was so sad that I didn't take a picture of the pizzas when they came! Once the pizza was served we just started demolishing it right away because we were all so hungry! Besides that we also ordered a few other pizzas on the menu.



Pizza ai Porcini with wild mushrooms, truffle oil & mozzarella in bianco
 


Calzone with mozzarella, salame, provolone and macerated olives
 


Pizza Salsiccia with Leo's sausage, creme di brocolli and mozzarella
 

Pizza tiger prawns with tomato, mozzarella, endive and fresh chili
  

D.O.C Pizza with buffalo mozzarella and San Daniele prosciutto
*The prosciutto was TO-DIE-FOR*
   

Sweet Pizza c/ Belgium white chocolate & fresh strawberries with vanilla bean ice-cream
and might I add, this is as close as heaven as you can get. yeap. it's that GOOD.


Interesting fact, do you know the difference between prosciutto and pancetta? So prosciutto is a cured haunch of pig seasoned with salt pepper and a little garlic with incomparable taste due to favourable climate and a healthy diet in pigs, essentially cured ham. Pancetta is a fatty bacon from the belly of the pig flavoured with flavourings such as pepper, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg in either fresh, smoked or dried form.

Anyways I would highly recommend D.O.C to anyone who's an Italian/pizza fan and thanks again Winnie for the lovely dinner. we really had a feast didn't we! :)

BUON APPETITO!

D.O.C. Pizza and Mozzarella Bar on Urbanspoon

Friday, 8 July 2011

Ohhh Sooo Corny~~

First of all, welcome everybody to my very first post on my food blog! I've been a foodie for 2 years now and I have created this blog to share my love of food with you guys and I hope you would enjoy this blogspace as much as I will :)

The first dish that I have decided to make was a dish that was made on Masterchef by George Calombaris and its called 4 textures of corn. Its basically a dish using only one core ingredient and to show the versatility of what we can make with that one core ingredient. This dish consists of a corn puree, a corn custard, a corn salad and popcorn!

My interest in making this dish comes from my inability to decide whether this is a sweet or savoury dish. The dish was a success and after tasting it, I would think that it would lean more towards being a dessert, and it would be one of the most healthiest dessert ever cause there was no sugar involved whatsoever in the dish, due to the powering sweetness of the sweetcorn itself. Even while preparing I could just smell the sweetness of the corn, and yes its literally 'smell the sweetness', you could seriously just eat the corn raw!



The completed dish!
                                                                
The following ingredients has been taken from the Masterchef website but I've tweaked a few of it just to make life a whole lot easier xD

Ingredients
Roasted sweet corn and smoked almond salad
1 corn cob, husk left on
1/4 cup whole smoked almonds, roughly chopped
1 eschalot, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar, to drizzle
Salt and pepper, to taste

Note : I changed the almonds to walnut cause I think the shape of the walnut gives the dish a nicer image and texture. eschalot may be hard to find hence I substitute it with shallots which give the dish a huge punch of flavour. Onions could be used as a substitute as well. If you don't have white wine vinegar, it would be fine to add 1 tbs of white vinegar and 1tbs of white wine. It works fine.

Corn puree
45g butter
6 corn cobs, grated on microplane
200ml milk

Corn custard
1 grated corn cob, cob only
250ml milk
200g corn puree
4 sheets gelatine, gold leaf strength, softened

Note : you could substitute the gelatine sheets with gelatine powder, the ratio of one sheet is to 1 tsp of gelatine powder

Popcorn
3 tablespoon vegetable oil
100g raw popcorn kernels


Saffron butter
pinch saffron
20ml boiling water
50g butter, softened

Note : you could substitute it with imitation saffron powder. saffron is EXpensive ><

Method
Roasted sweet corn and smoked almond salad
1. Cook corn cob over a BBQ or grill plate until charred. Remove husks and discard. Cut kernels from cob and place in a bowl.
2. Add nuts and sliced shallots and drizzle with olive oil and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine and spoon into a serving dish.



Corn puree
1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan, add grated corn and cook, stirring for 3-5 minutes. Add a pinch of salt and 200ml milk. Bring to the boil and simmer gently, stirring often for about 12 minutes until mixture thickens. Blend in a bar blender until smooth, return to pan.

Corn custard
1. For corn infused milk, chop reserved corn bob into 5-6 pieces and place in a small saucepan with milk and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil, then leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Strain and reserve.
2. Add softened gelatine leaves to warm milk and stir until melted. Add 200g corn puree to a large bowl and stir in gelatine milk mixture, stir well to combine. Sieve into a jug and set aside.
3. Pour corn mixture into any mold to your liking and refrigerate until set.



Popcorn
1. Soak saffron in water until colour starts to bleed. Blend with butter, set aside. (or you could use imitation saffron to give its orange/red colour)
2. Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium heat, add popcorn, cover with a lid and wait for kernels to pop and open. Shake the pan often. Once nearly all popped, add saffron butter and stir to coat. Return lid for 1 minute, then drain popcorn in a colander to remove excess butter.






Corn Custard and Popcorn!

Corn Salad and Corn Puree ~ 



***Credits to Nicole for the AWESOME photography and Ethel for popping the popcorn!