On quality of life

Posted on by cheryl

Aioli with some fresh basil and rosemary as decoration

A mild aïoli made entirely with natural ingredients,
topped with fresh rosemary and some basil
Photo © J E Nilsson for CMC, 2009

I grew up in Singapore with the assumption that good cooking based on fresh and natural ingredients was something that would never change. I assumed that there would always be someone there who took fresh fruits and newly harvested vegetables, flipping fishes, and fresh meat into their pots and pans to serve well cooked dishes at affordable prices.

The hawker centre concept in Singapore to me was equivalent to well-made home cooked food at very modest prices. For perhaps $1-2 USD you could sit down at a table and have a dish that would have taken hours of preparation to make yourself. Granted, the table was not your own and sometimes a bit wobbly and more often than not you would be seated outdoors, but that was a small price to pay compared to the returns of a local delicacy from the hands of someone who loved doing what they knew best.

Even simple things such as your daily coffee and tea from a coffee shop in Singapore rivals the choices of the mega coffee chain Starbucks, coming in a variety of servings such as kopi, kopi-O, kopi-si etc and teh, teh-O, teh-si, teh tarik etc. This philosophy and lifestyle towards affordable food made with fresh raw ingredients and a passion for a select dish, reflects what I think is quality of life in a modest setting.

Today however, Singapore is seeing the commercialisation and franchising of the hawker centre concept, Food Republic is one such concept where recipes are standardized and foods pre-processed before serving. It’s a concept that is a far cry from the traditional food hawkers I grew up with, even though they equip the interior of these franchise outlets with old style kopitiam (breakfast coffee house) furniture and tea cups. These days, the real food hawkers’ fare can be found in for example, Bangkok, Thailand where food hawkers cook along the streets right next to the wet markets.
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Mango season in Singapore

Posted on by cheryl

Ripened honey mangoes from Thailand, sold in Singapore

Honey mangoes from Thailand, found at the local grocers in Singapore.
Photo for CMC © Jan-Erik Nilsson, 2009.

Perfectly ripe mangoes such as these cannot be found in Sweden due to transportation costs, I guess. But what the food industry cannot give us, loving parents can, by dropping a few of these in a box and just sending them our way.

If you’re not living in a tropical climate, perfectly sunripened mangoes are difficult to come by, so I thought I’d share this with you in pictures.

For those of you who are in Southeast-Asia at the moment, now is the time to go shop for mangoes, because it’s blissful mango season out there!

I don’t think these mangoes could’ve lived a day longer, their flesh so ripe that it looked translucent. It would’ve gone perfect with just about anything at this moment, from ice-cream topping to yoghurt mix. We preferred to have these on their own.

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Project LBD (Little Black Dress)

Posted on by cheryl

Angelina Jolie for St. John in a little black dress

Angelina Jolie for St. John

Scandinavia has varying codes of dress for the PhD viva voce, with Hanken in Finland being one of the most formal in terms of ceremonial rites and dress, up to and including how family members should dress and where they should sit during the event i.e. in the front rows of the examination hall. A brief extract from their website, translated from Swedish to English, on dress codes for the viva include:

The respondent chooses how s/he wants to be dressed and the opponent acts accordingly. For men, it is a choice between an evening dress or a dark suit. If tailcoats are chosen, the vests should be in black. In Finland, a PhD public defense is never conducted wearing a blazer or sweater. For women, the basic rule is that the dress or suit should be black. A white blouse and white accessories are fine. If you want to be hyper-correct, then wear only pearls as jewellery: they are white. At some colleges there are “defense caps” to borrow.

Opponent (the opponent) and kustos have their hats with the Act. They wear the hat on the left arm with the emblem facing forward during the entry and put the hat on the table in front of them when seated. The emblen on the hat should face the audience.

The family, friends and colleagues of the family should be slightly dressed-up. The next-of-kin should also be seated at the front of the examination hall. The viva however, is an open event and all who wish to attend can do so, regardless of dress. Acquaintances and those who intend to leave before the viva has finished, should be seated further back in the room, so that they can leave the hall without attracting attention.

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Cuneesi al liquore by Dulcioliva, the perfect chocolates for Easter!

Posted on by cheryl

Dulcioliva, liquour filled chocolates from Italy

Cuneesi al liquore by Dulcioliva. Liquor flavoured chocolates from Italy.
Photo for CMC © Jan-Erik Nilsson, 2009.

I’m a chocoholic. As far as I can recall, I’ve always preferred chocolates over candy, and when given the choice between coffee or tea to breakfast, I would inevitably find myself asking if there was any hot chocolate on the menu.

At home, I keep boxes of plain cocoa powder for that morning cuppa and a stash of chocolates in the food cabinet for just when I need a quick chocolate fix!

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro with Benny Eriksson, owner of Beriksson, Sweden

Taking notes, with Benny Eriksson, owner of “Beriksson Import and Chocolate”, Sweden.

So imagine one of my wildest fantasies come true when I met Benny Eriksson at the recent foodfair Passion för Mat in Gothenburg a few weeks ago, who introduced me to his line of imported Italian made chocolates!

My eyes went wide with delight when I found myself in front of a little chocolate buffé at Benny’s exhibition stall, with assorted chocolates from Guido Castagna, Muzzi, Gardini and my absolute favourite (after all the sampling) – the Cuneesi al liquore from Dulcioliva!

Bite into a truffled Cuneesi al liquore (shown in the first picture above) and you’ll find yourself immediately taken by the soft consistency of the chocolate ganache found in the middle of the chocolate shelled conconction that melts in your mouth. The taste of this sweeter, liquored ganache is then complemented by the bitter dark chocolate shell on the outside of the confection.

What you’ll end up experiencing is a wonderful chocolate symphony that signals a celebration of sorts.
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Sauce Béarnaise, simplified

Posted on by cheryl

Entrecôte beef with bernaise sauce, almond potatoes, cherry tomatoes and parsley

A grill fried entrecôte served with a simplified Béarnaise sauce.
The sauce is based on all natural ingredients and takes about the same time to make as those that comes out of a bag.
Photo for CMC © Jan-Erik Nilsson, 2009.

Well, I am a meat person. However much I like good quality food in general and will immensely enjoy a well-prepared fish dish, given a choice, I would go for the beef anytime.

There is nothing that makes a steak more enjoyable than a number of nice side dishes and maybe a spread of good sauces to go with it.

This time I just wanted to see if it was possible to simplify the pretty tedious preparations that go into making a real Béarnaise sauce. The French chefs would say, sure you can simplify a Béarnaise, but “zen it ees not a zous Béarnaise”. Ok, so much for the help from zat side. But admittedly of course, the French are right.

The basis of this sauce is a couple of egg yolks, which you stir and then mix with butter. What you add after that pretty much decides what sauce you end up with, some examples are mayonnaise (mustard), aioli (garlic), hollandaise (lemon) or Béarnaise (white pepper, shallots and herbs). You can refer to your cookbooks for the proper recipes.

Anyway I was just curious about how this would work out and this is what I did:

First you will need two pans. In the first one; melt 50-75 grams of butter so it become liquid enough for pouring. Keep the temperature on the low side.

In the second pan; add two egg yolks and 1 tbsp of water. Whip slowly over low heat until it stiffens. Add the butter slowly. Stir until all has joined.

Add a few drops of vinegar, white pepper, salt, 1 tbsp chopped parsley and 1 tbsp chopped tarragon, all to flavour.

Keep the egg whites for another day.

Done. Goes perfectly with any beef. Barbecued or fried.

Bernaise sauce with parsley

Bernaise sauce, simplified.

My favorite homemade Cumberland sauce

Posted on by cheryl

Plate of paté with pickles, orange and homemade cumberland sauce with port

Pâté served with homemade Cumberland sauce, pickled cucumbers “cornichons” and a slice of orange.
Photo for CMC © Jan-Erik Nilsson, 2009.

Just a few days ago while shopping, I ran into some really nice looking pâté, and I felt that was just the thing for an Easter lunch. After stopping by the delicatessen counter and checking out their version of Cumberland sauce, I found it was nothing like what I wanted out of a Cumberland sauce, so I decided to go home and make our own.

It is not very expensive and surprisingly easy to make. If you haven’t tried this before, you will find that it will only take a few minutes from start to finish. Here is what I used:

1 lemon
1 orange
1 jar of redcurrant jelly
1 glass of port
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 table spoon grounded ginger

Ingredients to Cumberland sauce, port, lemon, orange and redcurrant jelly

Port table-setting: the ingredients to the Cumberland sauce.

Some good port to give the Cumberland sauce its personality, lemon, orange, ginger and redcurrant jelly. I used two wine glasses filled with redcurrant jelly in this recipe. Chocolate mints (in the foreground) and some rich purple tulips (flowers of the season) to complement the Easter season and brighten up the kitchen while cooking!

Preparation of orange and lemon rinds

Peel off the absolute outer part of the rind – the zest – on the orange and the lemon. You will not need much of this. Avoid cutting into the white inner layer, the pith, since this is unpleasantly bitter. Slice finely and cook for 5 minutes to soften up and clean away anything funny that might be on the peel. Discard the water.

Peeling the zest off a lemon, orange rind in foreground

This is the only tricky part. Here I needed to be very careful not to cut too deep into the peel as I only wanted the outer, colorful layer of the rind, the zest.

Orange and lemon rinds, sliced thinly

Lemon and orange zests, sliced thin.

This is much more than you will need, just take a few spoons of this after it is boiled.

Continue reading “My favorite homemade Cumberland sauce” →

Salmon butterfly fillet and some on the philosophy of cooking styles in general

Posted on by cheryl

Salmon with teriyaki sauce, rice, lettuce and tomatoes

Salmon served with teriyaki sauce. On the side are rice, lettuce and tomatoes.
Photo for CMC © Jan-Erik Nilsson, 2009.

This is not much of a recipe, it’s more like a reminder that there are such simple and easily cooked dishes that combine luxury with a superb health aspect, such as this salmon plate that basically dribbles with heart friendly Omega 3 fat.

A butterfly fillet is a straight cut from a salmon fillet. You either buy them ready or cut the un-skinned thick fillet crosswise in about 3-4 cm (1-1.5 inch) wide slices. Then take each of these slices and make a cut down to (but not through) the skin. Fold out and you’re done.

Regarding how to fillet and tidy up a salmon, there are tons of short films available on Youtube. Since I have grown up in an Asian tradition where you take care of and use almost everything of your raw ingredients, I found myself noting how much of the salmon gets thrown away during the filleting process. Few videos for example, recommend keeping the salmon head and cooking with it.

While traditional Indian Fish Head Curry doesn’t use salmon head, my recent dining at an Indian restaurant in Gothenburg, where they served salmon curry indicated that perhaps salmon head could be used in that dish. Salmon skin is also often stripped and thrown away. In Japanese cooking, salmon skin is fried to a crisp and eaten in sushi rolls. The taste is fantastic! I would personally hate to think that one starts out with a healthy 40 lbs (20 kg) salmon and end up with maybe less than 5 kg worth of salmon fillet left to eat.

Of course there are different schools of thought in cooking, one of which is where you tidy up everything before you cook, and the other philosophy is that you cook as much as possible and tidy things up when or immediately before you eat. If you’re looking at a hypothetical dichotomy in schools of thought, then the results of the first method would produce close to industrially processed foods which could end up quite sterile and tasteless once you’ve de-boned, de-fatted and de-skinned everything, and the second would produce more home style home cooking that uses bones and skin etc. to produce thick broth bases that could be further used in the cooking process. And as one could expect, the latter school of thought produces food that are infinitely much more flavourful. Continue reading “Salmon butterfly fillet and some on the philosophy of cooking styles in general” →

Draped emerald green top

Posted on by cheryl

Draped emerald green top by Vogue. Green is the feng shui color of renewal, fresh energy and new beginnings. Combined with purple some believe that it will even be good for generating wealth.
Photo for CMC © Jan-Erik Nilsson, 2009.

It’s finally spring and the days are getting longer up in the Nordic countries. And who’s not looking for something fresh and new to start up the season with?

According to conventional feng shui wisdom all shades of the color green is good for revitalising energy. So in that sense, green in its various shades and hues can be used to this effect. Lillian Too, a fengshui expert, also believes that green is the colour to wear for 2009 for the purposes of attracting financial success.
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When things are different

Posted on by cheryl

The following article was first published in Swedish on 16th April 2007 in the University of Gothenburg’s Journal. This post brings you the English translation of the article, followed by the article in Swedish. The article in Swedish can also be accessed via GU Journalen.

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro. Photo by Steven Grindrod

Photo: Steven Grindrod.

I’m a Singapore citizen and a research student with the department of Linguistics at Gothenburg Univeristy. When I arrived a few years ago, it was no small cultural shock that I experienced. While I generally found Swedes to be a warm, helpful and friendly bunch, it didn’t help that I still felt completely isolated. I didn’t understand the language and the various social activities I attended inherently contained values and codes that were unlike my own and what I was used to.

Compared to Sweden, Singapore is fairly conservative. It was only a generation ago that arranged marriages were the norm and the concept of sambo or living together without getting married for all practical purposes is still unheard of. A Chinese girlfriend of mine had a magistrate marriage ceremony in Singapore and thereafter, both husband and wife returned to their respective parents’ place to live. They only moved in together after the traditional Chinese wedding ceremony was conducted a year later.

Graffiti is unthinkable. The competition between organizations and individuals is also tougher in Singapore. Delivery is calculated within the hour rather than days in between and it is not unusual to call after office hours and still get excellent customer service. The public transport system is clean and efficient, with trains arriving every three minutes during peak hours.

About a week ago, I was invited to an international student / researcher reception held at City Hall with the Mayor of Gothenburg as host. It was interesting to have met so many people who were like myself, non-natives of Sweden and who came from various cultural backgrounds.

A French researcher I met that evening said that on his part, he would rather not get to know a country, its culture and its people prior to working / living in that country. This is so that he doesn’t get a coloured vision of the country and he could begin getting to know the different culture without bias.

That was an interesting point of view. In part because it didn’t quite par with my experiences on getting to and living in Sweden and in part, it was my area of research interest. I research Swedish leaders of Swedish owned organizations in Singapore and how thier experiences with the local culture influences / affects their leadership style.

In the way that fish are quite unaware of the water in which it swims, I believe Swedes in general don’t seem aware of Swedish idiosyncracies from the eyes of a foreigner and I’m not talking about snaps, hard bread and small little pigs that run around the Midsummer Pole come Midsummer. It’s much more subtle than that, such as implicit status symbols, hidden hierarchies, politally correct feminism, consensus seeking behaviour etc.

But look at it however, from a Swede who is now in a new culture, in some part of the world away from Sweden. It would be someone deemed to have leadership skills, whose job is to establish and steer a Swedish based organization abroad. They would have the pressing job of performing from day one and thier appointment in the foreign country is costing the organization in terms of salary and benefits. They are the best man for the job and the fate of the organization overseas is in their hands.

If that place were to be Singapore for example, everything would have been clean and tidy. Any season other than warm weather with or without rain, does not occur. The people are effective and friendly but the laws, social, family and organizationnal orientations are different. A congregation of over ten persons in public is forbidden and nobody laughs about the chewing gum ban. The land is multi-religious and religion is taken seriously. You can’t seem to order food from the local hawker center and people might be horrified at your table manners. There are social taboos not to be spoken of or referred to. Status symbols are a mystery. Everyone seems polite enough and they smile a lot but at the same time, you wonder why it is that what you want done just doesn’t get done even when the answer was yes when you asked.

My point with this not that we should stay home and not venture overseas and not even try to understand the different cultures abroad, but rather to point out that it is important for us to recognize the different nuances between cultures, which is much more than theatre, song and dance. There are institutions, the law, the passions of the people and fundamental values and beliefs in which we, with all our hearts, are convinced that is Truth, given by God, Allah, Brahma, Hunab Ku, Viracocha or Tom Cruise.

As a tourist, we perhaps can afford to explore unbiased and call the reception when we need help, but if the aim is to work with others in a different culture, we’ll need to be aware that there exist different understandings of what is real for others, what makes their morals, their truths and what is right for Them and understand their ambitions.

I believe if more resources were allocated to the study, understanding and respect of different cultures, there is much to be gained for all involved.

My hope is that my research will be a small contribution to this end and that it will help towards a deeper understanding of cultural differences.

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Shrimp bisque, an Easter dinner entrée

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Shrimp bisque with cognac and peeled shrimps

Decorate with a dusting of cayenne pepper and tarragon and maybe a few neatly peeled shrimps.
Photo © Jan-Erik Nilsson for CMC, 2009

Easter is upcoming and I have already started to think about dishes I feel would fit the season. Right now I believe salmon would be great, lamb cutlets are always a temptation and maybe a chicken baked whole and stuffed with some crisp apples would be fine.

We’ll see. The options are many but I have already started planning and that is always a beginning. In the mean time, considering the world’s finance crisis, I thought I’d like to share my best luxurious and least expensive dish ever- Lobster Bisque on a shoestring.

What usually happens when preparing a shellfish meal is that the meaty parts are put to good use whilst the shells of these crustaceans are discarded. The economy in this is that you can use every bit of those crustaceans, separating the meat from the shells and saving the shells for this dish. Here we are replacing lobster with shrimps.

This is a delicate entrée or starter, or something you can serve in-between dishes as a surprise. It fits well to be served in a cup. The value of this dish lies in its exclusivity. It will be a magic wake up call to the guests, and make them very hungry for the next dish. Ideally it should be tied into the whole meal so that the meat parts of the shellfish appear somewhere else. Here I don’t use beurre manie as thickener but whipped cream instead. This is my preferred way of simplifying the cooking, improve the flavor and texture, and mystify my guests.

The following serves 4 to 6 persons.

Peel shrimps
Peel 500 grams (1 lbs) of cooked medium sized shrimps. Put heads and shells, and peeled shrimps in separate bowls. In Sweden shrimps will come salted and might benefit from a slight rinsing in cold water before peeling. If your shrimps are cooked without salt you will need to add some salt to the finished stock.

Prepare stock
Prepare the stock by peeling and dicing 3 shallots, (1 carrot and 1 celery stalk are optional). Melt 2 tbs butter in a pot. Braise until soft. Add the shells, roe, heads and all into the pot. Add 1-2 dried chillies, or less if you are not so used to spicy food, and 2 tbs tomato paste. Add 2 cups of water and 1 cup of white wine and braise under lid at low heat for 10 to 15 minutes. If you actually use lobster shells, extend the time to an hour.

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