Mia's Review: Kaixo

Middle of this month, I successfully planned a surprise birthday celebration for J at Kaixo by gathering all the girlies at a rather short notice. And yup, J and I settled for Kaixo because somehow we were having the same craving for Churros and Paella. Plus, Kaixo is just one street away from her workplace. So I guess, why not? :)

 Menu can be found here without pricing. 

In case you're unfamiliar, Kaixo is a Spanish restaurant that offers mainly cuisine influenced by the Basque region (Northern Spain) and their dishes are generally tapas. 

We didn't even wait for J to confirm our order (because if there were only J and me, we only need to order Paella and Churros) and we went ahead to get a black paella for 2 and risotto off the main menu to share. We also ordered a Kurobuta (black pork) Pork Collar with Pisto Bilbaina and Raxor Clams in sauce Vierge off their special menu. Not forgetting two servings of Churros with hot chocolate dip! 

Just showing the interior of the small restaurant and the cute candle table lamp! 

Ginger Ale - $4.50

The difference between Ginger Ale and Ginger Beer is that Ale is more dry as compared to Beer, that's all (as according to the server). And as per their explanation, this glass of ginger ale is a mixture of slight sweetness, tangy-ness of the lemon, a pleasant subtle spiciness of the ginger and the distinctive dryness of the ale. Coming from someone who enjoys a can of Asahi Super Dry from time to time, this $4.50 is a well spent. :)

Razor Clams - $16

I can see that the rest of the girls has the exact same "Huh!" look that was on my face when the dish was served. We've all overestimated the servings of tapas. It seems that there really is just ONE clam's serving in this dish. (Yikes!)

The clams were cooked to an extremely chewy texture, yet not 'rubbery' at all. You can guess from the generous amount of chopped tomatoes that they tasted sour, pleasantly sour, and makes a very good appetizer course. The only thing bad about this for me was, why so little? :(

Kurobuta Pork Collar - $18

Looks like beef, eh? But it's really pork collar! 

The pork is cooked to amazing tenderness, yet still has the chewy texture that gives the meat a very good bite. Every bite is flavourful and savoury with a hint of spices, brilliant. I'm not going to deny that I'm really not a fan of pork, but this is good! 

Risotto (Creamy Bomba Rice with Mushrooms & Peas) - $18

I shan't deny that I got pretty turned off when this was served. Look at the amount of peas! When I dug my spoon in, I was further turned off because it seemed extremely mushy and gooey. Alright, by now you should know I was never a fan of risotto.... But my views changed upon the first bite. Although it seems mushy and gooey, the rice were actually still pretty hard, which added on a very distinctively bite and gave a great contrast to the gooey cream sauce the rice was generously drenched in. Very creamy, with a subtle savoury flavour to it. I've carefully avoided all the peas so please don't ask me how they tasted, yeah? And erm, because a small serving for 1 was actually shared among the 6 of us, I didn't manage to fish out any piece of mushroom. However tasty, I can forsee myself being unable to finish even the small serving due to the creaminess of the dish. I'm not exactly a cream person, that's why.

Black Paella for 2 (My apologies for the blurred picture) - $20 per pax ($40)

First impression, serves 2? Really? The serving of this paella is almost like the risotto for 1! 

However, the rip-off serving aside, first bite of the paella was heavenly. The rice was cooked till the point whereby those rice crusts are forming (think of claypot rice, those last bits of rice at the bottom?), hence it's a brilliant blend of soft mushiness with crusty hardness, all in a mouthful of rice. The pleasant surprise of the texture is further sweetened up with a flavourful savoury taste that was slightly peppery. Just now I liked it! However, the seafood were less promising. They're generally overcooked, with the squid so terribly done I felt I was chewing some rubber tyres. In the end I totally gave up and swallowed it all, almost choking on the huge chunk of unchewable squid.

The strong flavour of the rice also got to me after a while, so much so that I felt they're too salty to stomach with my final bite. I guess this is why they're meant for two. The strong flavour makes it impossible to finish this plate of paella alone. 

Churros - $14

Yes, $14 for 5 sticks of fried dough covered in cinnamon sugar and a watery chocolate dip. MAJOR RIP OFF. 

If you're interested, you can check out my post on churros recipe, which I've done recently. This $14 Churros basically just looks prettier than mine, made thicker than mine, more generously coated with cinnamon sugar than mine, and comes with an additional dish of a very watery chocolate dip.

Major disappointment here. Need I say more?

All in all, the 6 of us spent $160 in total at Kaixo, and left the place still very hungry and heading directly to a dim sum place over at Chinatown for 2nd round. 

The food was tasty, no doubt, but the price was too high for comfort. I guess I'll go back to Medz for paella for now, and will make my own churros. :p

Kaixo is located at 96 Tanjong Pagar Road and is closed on Sundays and Mondays. 

Till then, 

Mia

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Mia's Recipe: Churros

Last week, I tried to bake some Mickey Mouse vanilla cupcakes with brownie centre but failed miserably as I didn't cream my butter and sugar together well. I ended up with extremely dense, brownie like cupcakes. :(

This week, I've decided to give my all time favourite Spanish snack a go, Churros! I've combined Ochikeron's and Ann Reardon's recipe to get a recipe of my own. So let's get on to the ingredient list. 

We will need:

1. Milk - 150ml

2. Water - 100ml

3. Flour (All purpose, bread, or cake) - 125g

4. Unsalted butter - 115g

5. Sugar - 13g (1 tablespoon)

 6. Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon

7. Eggs - 3 nos.

8. A pinch of salt

9. Cinnamon sugar

First up, combine 1 tsp. of cinnamon powder with 3 tbsp. of caster sugar (you can use normal granulated sugar if you wish) to make Cinnamon sugar and set that aside. Otherwise, just grab a bottle of the cinnamon sugar from the supermarket.

Combine the milk and water in a pot. 

If you dislike the taste of milk, you can use 250ml of water. Likewise, if you'll prefer a richer taste of milk you can use 250ml of milk as well.

Add in the unsalted butter and bring the mixture to a low boil. Mix well until all butter has melted. 

Add in sugar and salt and mix well until all sugar and salt has dissolved. 

Turn down the heat and sift in the flour. Mix vigorously until the mixture comes together into a dough ball. Keep the pot on low heat and continue mixing for a while until the dough starts to leave a skin on the side of the pot.

Transfer the dough into a clean bowl (or you can do it in the pot if you wish) and continue stirring at it to cool it down. This is crucial as you will be adding in the eggs next and you will not want the hot dough to scramble your eggs. 

When the dough has cooled slightly, crack in the 3 eggs, mix well after each addition. 

It'll look like a slimy mess as above when you first crack in the egg and it seems like it will not mix. But trust me, continue working on it and it'll all come together. 

You know you got it when your batter turns sticky like so. (I apologise for the blurry pic. Gotta take it singlehandedly while I battled the batter) 

Then transfer your batter into a pastry bag fixed with a star tip. The "traditional" churros will probably need a large tip (0.6") but since I do not have one, I decided to make some mini churros with my ~0.6cm tip!

I piped out a total of 70 number of 9-10cm long strips like so. There was still a small amount of batter left in my pastry bag so I reckon I could have gotten 75 of them. 

I've piped about 18 to 20 strips on two large baking sheets to be baked at 190 degree celsius for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Just before baking, spray them down with some cooking oil spray or brush them generously with some melted unsalted butter. 

For the other half of my batter, I've piped them onto smaller squares of baking paper that will be a good fit for my frying pot, 4 strips to one square. Then, I deep fried them in the frying pot sheet by sheet (to avoid the churros on two sheets sticking together) till golden brown. When the batter starts to firm and puff up, gently pry them off the baking paper and remove the paper from the oil. 

When the churros (both baked and fried) are still hot, roll them in a plate of cinnamon sugar and make sure they're well coated. 

Fried ones on the left and baked ones on the right. I know they look burnt in the photos, but actually they're not. I've no idea why the photos turned out so dark.

These churros are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with a pleasant taste of cinnamon sugar. I personally will prefer the baked ones, not only because they're much easier to cook but also very much less oily. They'll definitely taste good with a cup of hot chocolate or with some chocolate dip!

Do try both method out and tell me which is your preference. :)

Till then,

Mia

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