Street Food Warms Your Heart: The Citrus House at 1 Magazine Road, The Central Mall - The Signatures: Pot-a-misu, Chocolate Lava Cake, Duck Confit, Chicken Burrito, Leg Of Lamb

Thursday, February 13, 2014

The Citrus House at 1 Magazine Road, The Central Mall - The Signatures: Pot-a-misu, Chocolate Lava Cake, Duck Confit, Chicken Burrito, Leg Of Lamb

The Signatures

Pot-a-misu - a special version of Tiramisu served in a pot (cup).

Core Ingredients - Chef Tom Oh makes the chocolate soil using Chocolate powder, ground Almond powder, butter, sugar & flour to make the ground soil, set at temperature 20 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.

How it is prepared - To make the Pot-a-misu base he uses egg white, sugar, mascarpone, ladyfingers from Phoon Huat. Next he whisk the cream then place in chiller, then whisk egg & sugar, mix with mascarpone, then fold in with cream. He soak the ladyfingers with coffee. Chef Tom Oh uses different topping soil to create different flavors : Oreo Soil, Chocolate Soil, Matcha Green Tea Soil Flavors.

Chef Tom Oh pointed out - to keep the color of soil uniform, he need to spend about 20 minutes continuously stirring the soil, opening the oven for about 10 times during the 20 minutes cooking time in the oven. He does each 300 to 400 gm size batch. The base layer is made of Mascarpone cheese with whipped cream, followed by ladyfingers, followed by Mascarpone cheese with whipped cream, followed by ladyfingers.

Tasting Notes : the Pot-a-misu tastes exactly like Tiramisu with distinct coffee soaked finger sponge layer. The display is very Kawaii.

This is the molten Chocolate Lava Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream dessert topped with Matcha bits, priced at S$6.00 that is served at The Citrus House.
How it is prepared - To make the molten Chocolate Lava cake, Chef Tom Oh uses Dark Chocolate (55.5%) chips, one whole egg and one egg white for the Chocolate Lava, with icing sugar at parts ratio of 1 : 2 Chocolate. Total 55 gram Chocolate to 25 gram sugar. Butter and cocoa powder added to the base & inner side of the mold. Then add 55 gram of the chocolate mix into the mold.
Chef Tom Oh beat the mixture for 5 minutes. Chef Tom Oh uses butter to line the base of the mould, & 55 gm Chocolate mix into the mould. Bake 200 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes. He uses Almond powder, raw Matcha green tea powder, Ikan multi purpose flour, soft butter, sugar & fold the mixture in a bowl & bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 120 degrees Celsius to form the green bits. Chef Tom Oh uses Vanilla ice cream from supplier Creamel.
Tasting Notes - Lava Cake is not very sweet, great for diners like me who does not like desserts to be overly sweet. The Matcha green tea bits exudes a distinct Matcha flavor to this dessert. The portion is just right for ladies.

This is the Signature Citrus Duck Confit served with baby potatoes halved, and seasonal vegetables : broccoli and carrot done sous vide style priced at S$14.80. Chef Tom Oh shares that the duck confit used in this dish is cooked using its own fats.

How it is prepared - Chef Tom Oh shares he uses frozen duck from his regular local importer. He marinates the duck using salt, pepper, sugar, a bit of its own fat. He obtains the fat from under the skin of the duck. First he trims the fat from the skin then cook the fat and let it cool down, ready to be used.
He adds the herbs: fresh thyme & rosemary in the duck's fat, add Italian pasti, salt, pepper, sugar and use that to marinate the duck leg for a 24 hour (whole) day overnight in the chiller. The following day, the duck leg is pack into the sous vide vacuum pack for 12 hours in the Infusion Chef Immersion Circulator at temperature 72.8 degree Celsius. Per batch Chef Tom Oh can do about 30 legs that will last for 3 days. Once cooked the leg is cooled in the ice bath, then store in the chiller for use. Once the order is placed, the leg is removed from the chiller and placed in 58 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes. Then the skin is pan seared to give a crispy skin before being served.

Tasting Notes - Chef Tom Oh uses a special sauce in this dish that make it so tasty I finished the entire Duck Confit. The winning special sauce used here is L & P Worchester sauce, with added butter, full cream, black pepper crush, that lends a sprite of spiciness sourly sweetness with a tinge of wasabish mustard flavor. Chef Tom Oh prepares the special sauce ready for use in this dish daily. The vegetables are done sous vide style in the circulator for 20 minutes at 50 degrees Celsius. The baby potatoes are baked at 160 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes that gives a crispy skin. Overall this dish is a must have comfort food for one who desires a crispy skin and tender meat in a Duck Confit.

This is the Slow Cooked Leg of Lamb (S$15.80 ) - served here at The Citrus House made with core ingredients: lamb, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, herbs (rosemary, thyme).

How it is prepared - Chef Tom Oh uses Australian grass fed 3 months old lamb from Huber. When the lamb legs arrived, they are de-boned & sliced into 40 gram size pieces. To the meat is added salt & pepper to flavor, plus herbs: rosemary, thyme, garlic (smashed) to marinate the meat for 1 hour. After which the meat are vacuum packed into portions each of 150 gram, and placed into the Infusion Chef Immersion Circulator at 58 degree Celsius for 45 minutes. For each batch he makes about 40 of the 150 gram vacuum packs to be cooked in the Infusion Chef Circulator which measures a 10 Litre capacity cast iron container. The water inside circulates to ensure even cooking of the meat inside each vacuum pack. Once cooked the vacuum packs are rested on the kitchen top for 30 minutes, and sent into the ice bath, then placed later into chiller for use once cooled down. Each freshly made batch of 40 packs can keep for about 5 to 6 days - ready for use for the entire week. Usually Chef Tom Oh orders 3 legs to make about 40 orders in a week and these always clear in a week through heavy promotion.

Once the order is placed, Chef sautees the onion, then the lamb, then add lamb sauce, then serve.

To make the lamb stock, Chef Tom Oh first fry the onions, celery, carrots, add red wine, then reduce the red wine. He needs two days to make the lamb stock. Chef Tom Oh roast the lamb bone for 180 to 200 degree Celsius for 2 hours, then the roasted bone is added to the sauteed onion, celery, carrot stock to cook the stock at slow simmer (medium high heat on the gas stove) for 6 hours in a day and left to cool. This is Step One of the production process in making the lamb stock.

Step Two : Chef Tom Oh sauteed onion, carrot, celery, tomato, then add red wine, followed by fresh herbs : thyme and rosemary. He then adds Step One stock to get the desired thickness. Once the stock is ready, they are individually sous vide vacuum packed & stored in the chiller to last for the whole week.
To serve, Chef Tom Oh use amount of about a ladle of the stock.

Chef Tom Oh uses Holland potato, boiled them till soft, peel the skin, then sieve, then add butter, cream, salt to serve. Ratio of Cream 2 : 2 potato : 1-2 tablespoon butter that are made fresh daily at the kitchen.

The lamb meat from chiller is first warmed in the pan, to it is added the onion, carrot that are already sauteed, then finally he adds the lamb stock, warm, and ready to serve in 10 minutes.

Tasting Notes - The lamb is very tender, chewy, not gamey at all, and tastes really homely, savory with a tinge of sweetness because of the onion and carrots used in this dish.

This is the Chicken Burrito (S$9.80) - served here at The Citrus House. The Chicken Burrito is served with straight cut fries from suppliers, and comes with sides : lettuce and cherry tomatoes.

Core Ingredients used are - mushroom, chicken, mango, cheese, avocado, romas. The Chicken Burrito wrap is made in-house and served ala minute. Chef Tom Oh uses two types of sauces to accompany as dips : the Cocktail sauce, and Lime and Mayo sauce, these are made in-house.

Tasting Notes - The white sauce used here in this recipe is the Lime and Mayo that comes with a citrus, sweet creamy taste, whilst the red cocktail sauce taste like a mix between ketchup, with a sprightly bit of chili spice that gives a sweet spicy flavor.

The chicken meat wrapped inside the Burrito is flavored with salt & pepper to lend it a homely taste. The Burrito wrap skin somewhat has a taste likened to that of local prata with a distinct buttery flavor. Chef Tom Oh is pretty generous with the serving of chicken breast meat cut to bite size lengths. The mango lends a sweet taste, the cheese lends a cheesy texture, whilst the avocado lends a creamy texture. The Chicken Burrito taste great on its own. I personally love to eat it neat. For those with a spicy taste-bud you can dip the Chicken Burrito with the cocktail sauce. For those who has a sweet palate, you can dip it into the creamy citrus Lime and Mayo sauce. Note that the fries come with a dash of salt, and the lettuce comes with balsamic vinegarette.