DBS Indulge: Masterclass with Sho Naganuma (from Hide Yamamoto)

[This post is brought to you by DBS Indulge]

Are you a DBS credit card holder? If you are, you probably know that there are quite a few benefits of holding on to a DBS credit card. One of the benefits is DBS Indulge. It's DBS Cards dining program that offers privileges at over 1000 dining outlets islandwide. Do you know, other than dining programs, DBS Indulge also offers Masterclasses by celebrity chefs?



As a DBS credit card holder, I want to know where I can get the best offers. To keep track of what DBS Indulge offers, I have the DBS Indulge iPhone app on my phone. (Search for 'DBS Indulge' in the Apple App Store). If you are a Nokia N series or Blackberry Bold Series (9000/9700) user, you can visit www.dc2go.net/dbs to send an SMS download link to your smartphone.




It is really quite a convenient app to have on your phone!


Recently, thanks to DBS Indulge, I got to attend a Masterclass by renowned DBS Indulge Chefs. DBS Indulge holds masterclasses monthly. I attended the May Masterclass by Chef Sho Naganuma from the famed Hide Yamamoto multi-concept restaurant located at Marina Bay Sands.



That's Chef Sho Naganuma.

Well, he is only 31! He is 1.8 metres tall, weights 70kg. From what I hear from the DBS Indulge ladies who have seen him in singlet, he has a very good physique too! Spiked hair, goatee, he looks more like a Japanese movie star rather than a chef doesn't he? He is the Executive Chef at Hide Yamamoto, the exclusive multi-concept restaurant at Marina Bay Sands.


While the ladies and some 'happy boys' are oggling at the Chef Sho, I was oogling at the featured recipes that he will be preparing!

He prepared the following in front of the audience and it was absolutely stunning!
- Chawan Mushi (Black Truffle Flan with Shark Fin Broth)
- Grilled Baby Poussin with Buttered Soy and Truffle Rice
- Pinky Chick (Strawberry Soya Milkshake with Tapioca Pearls, Yuzu Fizz and Strawberries)

Demo: Grilled Baby Poussin

It was only a 2 hour class, so to make good use of time, he prepared the baby poussin first. It has to bake for 20 minutes in the oven.

If you are shy to ask/too lazy to google/yahoo/bing, a poussin is a baby chicken or spatchcock. :-)

Recipe for Grilled Baby Poussin with Buttered Soy and Truffle Rice

Ingredients:

• 500g French baby poussin
• 500g Japanese rice
• 0.45 litre chicken stock
• 0.05 litre soy sauce
• 28g unsalted butter
• minced Italian fresh truffle
• whole Italian truffle
• white truffle oil

Method:

1. Clean poussin and soak in 3% salted water for 2 hours.
2. Once poussin is soaked, remove from salted water and dry.
3. Put Japanese rice, chicken stock, soy sauce and unsalted butter into a cooking pan and stir well. Allow it to steam in a steam overn at 100C for about 30 minutes.
4. Remove mixture from oven and stuff into baby poussin.
5. Brush duck fat over baby poussin and finish off with some salt. Cook in oven at 250C for 10 minutes on each side.
6. Finish up with charcoal until poussin is nice in colour.
7. For plating, take a portion of the poussin and assemble with a slice of fresh truffle. Spray with white truffle oil and serve.

Don't worry if you are sitting at the back. I was sitting behind and I could still see what's going on in front. There were 2 big screens around that showed a bird's eye view of what the chef is doing.

About the recipe, if you are wondering what is 3% salted water, well, someone in the audience asked the same question. 30g of salt in 1 kg (or litre) of water, that's 3%.

Chef Sho also said he bakes his chicken on the sides. The breast meat does not touch the bottom of the baking tray. This way, it stays moist. I shall try baking chicken that way next time!

Demo: Chawan Mushi

When I saw the steamers, I was like hey, those are square instead of round ones! They fit so nicely to the food serving trays!

The lady is a chef working in Chef Sho's kitchen. The steamers were already filled with bowls and bowls of chawan mushi to be steamed.Heavy stuff and the Chef lifts it with no effort at all!




Recipe for Chawan Mushi

Ingredients:

Chawan Mushi

• 8 eggs
• 600g dashi
• 35g white truffle oil
• 50g white soy sauce
• 75g black truffle

Shark Fin Broth

• 600g chicken soup
• 100g Japanese leek
• shark fins

To Thicken

• white soy sauce
• salt
• potato starch

Method: 

Chawan Mushi

1.  Blend eggs, dashi, white truffle oil and white soy sauce. Strain mixture into a bowl and chill.
2. Chop black truffle and add into the chawan mushi mixture.
3. Steam chawan mushi for 5 mins at 90C.

Shark Fin Broth

1. Heat chicken soup, Japanese leek and sharks fin over medium heat until the original amount has reduced by 50%.
2. Add in potato starch to the reduced mixture to thicken further.
3. Add salt and white soy sauce to taste.

He whisked everything and filled them into bowls and it's done! Off to the steamers and in a few minutes, wonderful chawan mushi!

Somehow the chef makes it so so easy!




The sous chef adding the finishing touches and also the sharks fin broth on top of the chawan mushi.




They taste so so good! So smooth! So fragrant! So delicious!
Yes, so much truffles too!!!




This was the bowl I had. Indulgence!



Can't resist not showing you the black truffles at the bottom of the bowl. You can see I swiped some off, and then remembered, I need to take a photo of it!

Demo: Back to the Grilled Baby Poussin

Do you know Chef Sho has super power! What he is doing in the photo above is to measure the core temperature of the chicken! He is Superman's cousin! (No, not related to keropokman, keropokman has no super power!)

He speaks English by the way. After all, he had worked in hotels and restaurants in Los Angeles and Washington DC.





Chef is smiling. I guess you can say the poussin was a success!




I think for the photo above, he is asking me if I want the whole poussin to myself.
My stomach might have growled a bit too loud! :-p




Chef Sho was showing us how to plate the dish.
No, he was not dancing with the baby chicken!

It seemed so easy for him to cut up the whole chicken. It was effortless for him. I wonder when will I be able to do that!




See, he used just a small sharp knife to accomplish what he wanted to do!




I thought the recipe said a slice of truffle!
He was way too generous that night! We all like him!




This was what I ate. Just too beautiful beyond description and too marvelous for words!




The bowl of black truffle! The truffle oil behind.

Demo: Pinky Chick

I have no idea why Chef Sho gave the dessert such a name. Pinky Chick. It sounds so... (nevermind.... as long as it taste good)




Recipe for Pinky Chick:

Ingredients:

Yuzu Fizz

• 1 litre water
• 200g sugar
• 30g yuzu juice
• 16g gelatine leaves

Strawberry Compote

• 1kg frozen strawberries (whole)
• 120g sugar
• 7g pectin

Strawberry Shake Soda

• 200g strawberry sherbet
• 150g soy milk

Method:

Yuzu Fizz

1. Boil water, sugar and yuzu juice
2. Bloom gelatine leaves in ice water and add the bloomed gelatine into the yuzu mixture.
3. Set the mixture in the chiller for 3 hours. Once set, break the mixture and pour it into the siphon.
4. Charge it with CO2 chargers and chill overnight.

Strawberry Compote

1. In a bowl, mix sugar and pectin together and set aside.
2. Boil strawberries in a pot until they start to turn soft. Add the sugar mixture to the pot of boiling strawberries.
3. Stir constantly until mixture thickens like a jam.

Strawberry Shake Soda

1. Combine strawberry sherbet and soy milk and whisk until mixture thickens.
2. For assembly, combine strawberry compote, pearls and fresh strawberries. Pour in strawberry soy shake, followed by the yuzu fizz and garnish with mint leaf. Serve.

Look! A toy that I want, but I doubt I will use it often. He is using a Espuma or thermo canister with a pump sprayer to charge the yuzu fizz with CO2.

It magically transform the gel like yuzu with gelatine into foam that looks like cream!






The pinky chick! Ah..... I can only say ah.....




This was our pinky chick!

Thanks to a lady sitting beside me in the audience who does not take gelatine, she offered me her portion. During the Q&A, she was asking if other alternatives to gelatine can be used. The chef says he will get back to her, but I think it should work :-)

Sake Pairing

It seemed that on the day or day before the masterclass, the folks from the Tatenokawa brewery was in Singapore. Tatenokawa was established in 1932 and boast a 170-year history based in the Shonai region of Yamagata, the breadbasket of Japan bordered by Mt Chokai to the north and Mt Gassan to the south.

Sounds impressive?



The sake master! Ask him anything about Sake and he knows.




For every dish we had, sake was served. I can't remember the name of each of the sake.
I tried them and they were good. Oh, they were excellent!
The most interesting ones are the following:



"Kodakara Yogurt" and the "Kodakara Yamagata Peach and Cherry" combo!



Mix them together and oooo, you get something something that you want more and more of!

You can get the sake at Orihara Liquor Shop and Bar located at 11 Unity Street, #01-01/02, Robertson Walk, Singapore 2379995. You can call them at +65 6836 5710



Now that you have seen the dishes prepared by Chef Sho, do you want to try it as well?
Here's a deal that I saw on the Asian Food Channel Website.

Exclusively for DBS/POSB Credit or Debit Cardmembers at Hide Yamamoto:

• Exclusive chef's menu (featuring the signature dish from Chef Sho's masterclass)

Hide Yamamoto
Marina Bay Sands L2-05
(2nd floor of casino, accessible to general public via The Shoppes).
Tel: +65 6534 8880


If you would like to attend other month's session, please visit www.dbs.com for details on how to register.

A big thanks to Fulford PR and DBS Indulge for inviting me to attend this masterclass.