Street Food Warms Your Heart: S(he)brews Cafe at 365 Commonwealth Avenue - The Chef The Menu The Signatures The Promotion

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

S(he)brews Cafe at 365 Commonwealth Avenue - The Chef The Menu The Signatures The Promotion

The Chef - Chef Bani

Chef Bani never attended any formal culinary school, but she bowls me over with her precision and dedication to her cuisine.

Chef Bani comes from a traditional Malay family that does a lot of catering. She grew up watching her Dad, Mum & sister busy with their catering business using traditional Malay recipes to cook up a storm for their clients.

Her culinary style is pretty much influenced by her husband's side as well as her family. Her husband is Eurasian whilst Chef Bani is Malay. She watches a lot of cooking programs, read a lot of books on western cuisine, and started at a very young age. Back in Primary school days, she grew up watching her mum cook.

And at age young of 20, she decided to follow her culinary passion. She used to be in sales before she enters the F&B industry. Now she is into her 7th/8th year in the F&B industry. She used to do cater some events under her own company, does Wedding Planning. where she plans the menu for Weddings with the cooks executing the menu.

Today she is the hands behind those mouth-watering, lips-smacking, delicious Signatures you will drool over at S(he)brews Cafe at 365 Commonwealth Avenue.

The Menu

The Signatures

Fish & Chips (priced at $8.90 for Set Meal & $7.90 on the ala carte menu) by Chef Bani - she uses frozen Dory (Suchi) Fish, ingredients salt & pepper to marinate the fish half an hour before serving.

How it is prepared - To the breads crumbs is added mixed dried herbs: basil, thyme, rosemary & oregano. The marinated fish is dipped into common purpose flour, then into eggs & milk mix, then to the bread crumbs (from supplier), then fried for 10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. The french fries are deep fried. The tartar sauce with gherkins are from supplier.

Shepherd's Pie (priced at $8.90 for Set Meal & $7.90 on the ala carte menu) by Chef Bani - she uses minced beef, ingredients salt & pepper to flavor.

Core Ingredients - Chef Bani uses herbs such as : thyme, rosemary, oregano to flavor the minced beef. Core ingredients used is onions, chopped garlic, fresh button mushrooms chopped into small pieces, mixed vegetables carrots corn peas, minced beef. She uses Bombay white onions which are sweeter for western dishes. Chef Bani usually orders the Australian beef cut that is of a better grade with a proportionate amount of fats but not too much fats. The supplier will minced the meat and deliver to the outlet. For the beef broth, Chef Bani buys ready-to-use pure beef broth packet that does not contain MSG from her supplier.

How it is prepared - The mushrooms are chopped into small pieces, to it is added, chopped carrots, sweet corns, peas. The onion & garlic, are first stirred fry, browned, then to them is added the mushroom to cook to draw out the water in the mushroom. Finally to the mixture is added the fresh minced beef meat, with added seasoning such as salt pepper to flavor. The fresh minced meat mixture is cooked in medium-low fire for half an hour to 45 minutes depending on the portion of minced meat used. After the onions, garlic, mushrooms are ready, to them is add minced meat, salt pepper, herbs, beef broth. After one hour of cooking, the fire is turned off.

Usually for each batch of the Shepherd's Pie's base filling, she uses about 2 to 3 kg of fresh minced beef in a pot. Chef Bani shared that about 2 kg of the fresh minced beef is enough to make about 16 kg of the base filling for the Shepherd's Pie. She usually cooks 2 to 3 kg of the meat at one time. The minced meat is cooked on the very day the Shepherd's pies are sold. Chef Bani shared that there is no need to marinate the meat as it is already minced with the fats sinews removed, so it is easy for flavors to be infused into the meat.

As for the masked potatoes, Chef Bani uses Russet potatoes for the top layer of the Shepherd's pie, she peels them and boils them with a little salt. To the boiled mashed potatoes, she adds salt, SCS unsalted butter and good quality Meiji fresh milk. She mashed the potatoes till it becomes a puree,and ready to be used as the top filling for the Shepherd's Pie. She does an average of 12-15 boxes of the Shepherd's Pie per batch.

To prepare the fillings for the Shepherd's Pie into the box, Chef Bani layers half inch of meat and vegetable filling mix, followed by half inch of the mashed potato. The pies are baked for about 10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius to brown the top.

Tasting Notes : Chef Bani uses minced beef meat totally marinated with flavorful herbs vegetables: black pepper, sweet corns, fresh button mushroom s, green peas, carrots to make it more flavorful. The portion of meat to potato is 1:1 with about half inch thick of minced meat to half inch thick of mashed potato. The minced meat is cooked in superbly delicious good stock broth that makes the meat very juicy, there is added sweetness coming from the sauteed onion that comes into this recipe. The pie has a wholesome taste to it, not exactly too gluey, but juicy, flavorful, savory, delicious, and best eaten when warmed.

Slow Roasted Leg of Chicken (priced at $8.90 for Set Meal with drink of choice & dessert & $7.90 on the ala carte menu) by Chef Bani - served with roasted potatoes and side common salad.

Core Ingredients - Chef Bani uses fresh leg of chicken from her regular local fresh market poultry supplier in Ang Mo Kio who delivers fresh twice a week. Chef Bani usually orders 10 kg of the fresh chicken leg to last for 3 days, about 3-4 legs per kg. For bigger events she orders more.

How it is prepared - She marinates the chicken leg overnight using dried herbs: thyme, rosemary, oregano, as well as honey, garlic & olive oil. After marinating overnight, she places the chicken legs into tray, cut the white onions, lay the chicken legs on the onion & bake at 180 degree for 45 minutes. The chicken soon becomes moist.

To prepare the potatoes : the potatoes are parboiled with a little salt, for 10-15 minutes first in a pot with boiling water, then add salt, pepper & olive oil, add to chicken when chicken is almost done (10 minutes before the chicken is done).

To serve, to the chicken is added the mushroom sauce. To make the mushroom sauce, Chef Bani uses fresh white button mushroom, sauteed with onion, light soya sauce, black pepper, butter, flour. The mushroom sauce is made separately in advance in one whole pot. For 20 portions of leg Chef Bani makes 20 portions of mushroom sauce. To serve the mushroom sauce is poured over the chicken. The order is cooked ala minute. There is no need to pan-sear the chicken legs, she finds roasting the chicken legs just as tasty. Her style is western, fusion. She cooked about 20 chicken at one time, with the chicken in two trays to fit into the oven nicely.

Tasting Notes : When I first set my eyes on the Slow Roast Leg of Chicken, in my heart I gathered that this must be frozen chicken because the leg looks huge! Imagine my surprise when Chef Bani shared that she only uses fresh chicken from the local market. It is this adherence to quality ingredient and emphasis on freshness that won my heart, and my vote. As I took a sizable bite into the chicken, I would taste the tiny bites of thyme, rosemary and oregano she uses to flavor the leg. The meat is juicy tender sweet, not dry at all. I like it that she uses honey in the marinate as it gives an added sweetness to the meat. I am indeed bowled over by the fresh mushroom sauce that she takes pain to prepare. It is savoury sweet, and has that umame homely feel that paired favourably with the meat - I love this dish so much I can eat this everyday ! And the price is super cheap for a chicken leg where the portion is huge. I know why they did not charge for more than $10, as they have a lot of students from MDIS coming over for lunch and they have to ensure the price is reasonable.