Aurora Salmon at Kuriya Fish Market, Great World City, Singapore

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Aurora Salmon, fatty salmon, food tasting, japanese, Kuriya FIsh Market, Leroy Seafood Group, Norwegian Seafood council, premium salmon, review, salmon sashimi, sashimi, singapore

About a month ago I attended a food tasting event at Ichiban Boshi at Great World City. It’s a place I used to frequent pretty often until a year or two back. I had a couple of not so very pleasant experiences and have since tried to avoid going back. However they’ve just recently introduced something interesting called Aurora Salmon at the Kuriya Fish Market which is attached to the restaurant. It is a kind of premium sashimi-grade salmon from Norway brought in by the Leroy Seafood Group.

The name itself caught my interest, there’s just something whimsical and a tad bit mysterious about it, just like its namesake “Aurora”. This salmon is indeed farmed under the Northern Lights of the Arctic Circle in a pristine environment and optimal conditions so as to produce salmon with a higher fat content. I’ve tried wild salmon before as well, it is a much deeper orange and has less fat content which is perhaps why I prefer the farmed ones.

I have to be honest and state that my favourite fish to have as sashimi is the tuna. I rarely ever specifically order salmon sashimi unless it comes in a set or in one of those mixed sashimi dishes. But I thought I’d set my prejudice aside and give it a go.

Seeing all the food bloggers there and the variety of good cameras being used, I was embarrassed clicking away on my iPhone. My SLR is just not user friendly enough to snap food pictures at a close distance or I’m just not good enough to handle it correctly. Not all the pictures here are mine. I need a 35mm lens!!!

So here’s the lunch menu:

And here are the chefs preparing salmon sashimi for us. The fish is absolutely plump, shiny and beautiful.

     

So we all had a first taste of the salmon sashimi before we sat down to lunch. I first tried it with soy sauce, but the soy sauce had a sour tang to it that got in the way of the salmon so I tried it again later without the soy sauce.

I must say as far as salmon sashimi goes, this is good stuff. You may not realize it right away, and you may even need to taste test normal salmon sashimi against the aurora salmon sashimi to see the difference, but it is indeed smoother, fattier and more savoury than your normal salmon. And then later on you might not want to buy normal salmon anymore.

So here are a few more pictures into lunch. I’m not sure if they will be including this into the Ichiban Boshi menu, I only know that the Aurora Salmon is being sold in Kuriya Fish Market outlets. The salmon is flown fresh into Singapore within 2-3 days of harvesting so I’m feeling pretty confident about its freshness.

Aurora Salmon carpaccio salad. It’s all right as far as salads go but I think the salmon skin could do with some work.Aurora Salmon sashimi. More of this please.

Aurora Salmon Miso Soup. I’m not a fan of salmon cooked in soup, it is so much tastier fried, baked or as sashimi. If you prefer milder flavours then perhaps you might like this, but fish cooked in soup tends to get overcooked and have a tendency to get tough as a result.

My favorites, the salmon teriyaki and assorted sushi platter 😉 Anything with mentaiko and mayonnaise is a winner! XD I hope for less rice in the sushi platter next time though, there was way too much in terms of rice to fish ratio.     

As I was leaving, I was pleasantly surprised when they handed me some Aurora Salmon sashimi to take home. Best door gift ever!

Salmon sashimi for dinner then!!!While I still don’t order salmon sashimi at restaurants I find that I’m actually craving this Aurora salmon, in all its buttery and smooth finery. It’s perfect with hot rice.Definitely going back for more soon!

 

White truffle series part 3: Uni pasta with truffles

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fusion, ikura, italian, japanese, Pasta, sea urchin cream pasta, sea urchin cream sauce, sea urchin pasta, sea urchin pasta topped with white truffle, seafood, sinful meals, uni cream sauce pasta, uni cream sauce pasta with truffles, uni pasta, white truffle

Just another picture post as I’ve already done up a recipe on Uni pasta. 

The only difference is that this time I shaved tonnes of delicate, fragrant white truffle on top. Mmmm~

Don’t forget to be generous with the amount of sea urchin.

If you like, you could try dropping a couple of drops of truffle oil into the cream before tossing the pasta in.

Green tea and Red bean muffin

Tags

azuki red bean paste, cupcake, dessert, green tea, green tea and azuki red bean muffin, green tea and red bean muffin, green tea recipes, muffin, quick recipe, red beans

Another quick recipe. Sister’s friend gave this recipe to us and we had some fun with it. It’s really moist and I love anything with green tea in it. Kinda makes me feel somewhat healthier, which isn’t really the case when I take a look at the ingredients! Takes less than an hour to pop these babies out. Fresh out of the oven, they’re delish!

Ingredients (makes around 18-20 mini muffins, using a 2.5inch diameter muffin paper cups)

• 250g All purporse flour
• 250g Salted butter
• 140g Caster Sugar
• 2 teaspoon Green Tea Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 4 eggs
• 1 can of ready made sweetened azuki red beans

Instructions

1) Beat sugar and butter until it becomes white

2) Beat the eggs before adding them into the mixture

3) Combine flour, green tea powder and baking powder in a separate bowl

4) Add the flour mix gradually into the wet mixture and beat on low-medium speed until thoroughly combined.

 

5) Prepare the muffin cups, these cups are about 2.5 inches in diameter. Spoon the muffin mixture into the cups, about 2/3 full as the batter will rise during baking. Not to forget that we also need to add our red bean mixture once all the cups have been filled with the muffin batter.

6) Spoon the ready made red bean paste into a plastic sandwich bag, squeeze the bean paste into a corner and then cut off a corner to make a hole. This will act as a piping bag, to pipe the red beans into the muffin mixture. Don’t make the hole too small or too big.

7) Dip the piping bag into the muffin batter and pipe red bean paste into the center of each muffin cup. The total amount of batter should rise a little as red bean is inserted into the batter.

5) Bake at 170 degrees. If the muffins are small like mine, around 15 minutes will do.  Larger muffins take around 20-25 mins and if you’re making a loaf, bake for 50 mins. It should be lightly browned on top and well risen.

 

 

That’s how it looks when it’s cut in the middle. Looks good doesn’t it ;D

Next we had some fun with the mold that my sister insisted on using. Came out pretty cool too!

 

 

Enjoy!