Saturday, June 30, 2007

Fried calamari rings

Was watching a Korean food programme on squid. Learnt interesting facts: squid has more protein than beef. It is very low in fat. It is a rich source of taurine (anti-ageing) and selenium (anti-oxidant). Squid ink is also good and like black beans and black sesame seeds, is supposed to be good for the heart and asians believe it is good for the kidneys and liver.

Here's a simple recipe which is light and easily prepared.

Ingredients
Squid, prepared and cut into rings. The tentacles can either be whole or cut in half.
Milk
Egg
Flour seasoned with salt, pepper

Method
1) Prepare the squid. Soak in beaten egg with a splosh of milk.
2) Coat with the seasoned flour.
3) Deep fry until golden brown and crispy.
4) Serve with mayo or sweet chilli sauce.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Curry Pork-ettes in a Hurry

After my chicken nuggets, I liked the idea but found chicken breast too dry. I decided to give it a go with pork. The nice thing about pork is that it's slightly fatty, and even if you trim away the obvious fat, the grain of the meat itself still has little bits of fat which keep the meat moist. After cooking, even without oil, you'll see the oil and juices bubbling out and you'll know it's nice and moist inside.

With my trusty new bottle of 5-spice, I decided to try something new. I added curry powder for added kick but accidently ended up pouring half the bottle in. And hey, what did you know, it actually worked out better!


Ingredients (serves 2)

300g pork loin, cut up into nugget-sized chunks. Try to make them as evenly sized as possible so that the cooking time will be the same.
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp mustard
1 tsp salt
1 tsp 5 spice powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp tumeric
5 tbls curry powder
dash of pepper
crackers, crushed (approx 6 or 7 'soda' biscuits or you can use other types of crackers e.g. Ritz, Jacobs, etc)


Method

1) Pour the beaten egg into a shallow plate. Add the salt and mustard and stir well. Place the pork chunks in the egg and stir well. Leave to marinate for at least 10 mins

2) Put the crackers into a ziploc bag and crush using a rolling pin. Add all the rest of the dry ingredients and toss well.

3) Place pork chunk into the ziploc bag. Shake well to coat the pork properly.

4) Arrange on baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.

5) Bake at 200 deg C for 15 mins or until cooked (depending on the size of your pork nuggets)

6) For that added crunch, serve with deep fried curry leaves.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Nigella's Comforting Beef Cassarole

I'm such a fan of beef stews, because I've never ever been able to crack it. Not that I've been trying either, because I usually don't have the time to on weekends and neither do I own a slow cooker.

But here's another promising receipe, which I'm going to add to my list of "one day will try" recipes, and hopefully, that 'one day' will come, some day. Taken from her episode of 'Feasts' entitled 'Kitchen Comforts'.

Ingredients

½ cup Olive Oil
2lb Onions (Roughly Chopped)
1½lb Carrots (Cut On The Diagonal To Give Slanted Oval Slices)
½ cup Flour
Salt & Pepper (Freshly Ground)
1 tablespoon Dried Sage (Leaves)
2 teaspoons Ground Allspice
4½lb Stewing Or Chuck Steaks (Diced)
1 large Orange (Zested And Juiced)
2 cups Stout
2 cups Water
4 Bay Leaves

Method

1. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan or deep casserole, and fry the onions and carrots until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.
2. Remove the softened and oil-glossed vegetables to a bowl, and add the remaining oil to the pan. Put the flour into a large freezer bag along with salt and pepper, sage, and allspice; add the beef pieces to the bag, tossing in the flour, before searing the meat in the pan. Do this in batches, browning the meat a little and removing all of the beef to a large dish as you go.
3. When all the meat is browned and out of the pan, whisk or stir in the orange juice and stout and let it come to the boil. Add the water and then return the meat and vegetables to the pan. Stir in the orange zest and bay leaves, bring to the boil and then turn the stew down to a soft simmer. Cover and cook for 2 1/2 hours.
4. This is best reheated 1 or 2 days after, but if you are serving the stew on the same day, then add another half hour to the cooking time just to make sure the meat is soft, mellow and tender.

Recipe taken from Nigella Lawson's new cookbook FEAST.

Buchujeon (Garlic chives pancake)