Gelatine tips

Two very useful websites:

http://homecooking.about.com/od/specificfood/a/gelatintips.htm

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/04/how-to-use-gelatin/

Perfect oven fried chicken

I have finally perfected the recipe. After observing/researching and testing a lot of different techniques from various sources, this seems to work best for me - ie given my unique environment of oven and utensils. So it may not work as well for you, or you may need to tailor it and find one that does.

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 egg

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp give spice powder

2 tbsp oil (peanut is best for crunch if you have it)

Butter to dot

Method

1) Preheat oven to 220 deg C. Pat the thighs dry with kitchen paper. Beat the egg and add the flour. Mix well till you get a claggy mixture. Add the salt, pepper and five spice powder and mix well. Some recipes call for coating the chicken with flour then dipping in egg wash. After watching what Koreans do with fried chicken, I find it doesn't make a difference. In fact, battering it seems to help.

2) Coat with panko bread crumbs. Dust off the excess. Set in the fridge for about 20 mins for it all to come together. This step is very important so that the panko and batter adhere to the skin of the chicken.

3) Pour 2 tbsp oil into a baking dish. Put that in the oven to heat up (at least 5 minutes). Once it is ready, carefully place the chicken thighs in. Be careful as the oil could splatter and spit. It should sizzle when you place the chicken in the hot fat. Place it straight in the oven at 220 deg C for 10 minutes.

4) Turn over chicken. Place dots of butter on the skin. Bake for another 5 mins at 220 deg C then turn down to 200 deg C and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until chicken is done. I test for doneness either by pricking the thickest centre of the chicken to see if the juices run clear. Or, I can tell eg the juices run out from the bone, and it's no longer bloody (see my picture)

5) Let rest for 5 minutes (for juices to reincorporate) and not to burn yourself. Serve immediately!

Updated: Newer method which seems to work better. http://simmetra.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/oven-chicken.html

Perfect roast potatoes

I never thought I'd get it but it really does work!

Recipe from here: http://www.onepotchefshow.com/

The difference really is in using the right potatoes. I used Deserrie, which are prefect for roast and baked potatoes because it is very floury.

The tips from the video really help to. Here's what I did.

1) Chop the potato into equal sized chunks. I did mine like a 1 to 1.5 inches cube so that it would only take 20 to 25 minutes to cook. That's about slicing the potato (hand sized) into about 3 lengthwise. Pat down to dry with kitchen towels.

2) Important : use a fork to score them all over. This increases the crisp factor.

3) Salt generously, or about 1 tbsp of salt for 2 potatoes. Sounds like a lot, but salt is important to the crispy element. Add about 1 tbsp of oil (avoid olive oil which has a low smoking point). Lard or duck fat is best if you have it. Add herbs (I used rosemary and sage). Toss together well.

4) Arrange on a cookie sheet (preferably a pan which doesn't have high edges which will keep the moisture in. Try to keep them separate to ensure good airflow and crisping on all sides, so that the potato chunks don't stew together. This next step is very important: dot with butter.

5) Put cookie sheet into a hot 220 deg C oven. Bake for about 25 minutes, checking at 20 mins. Turn the potato chunks at 15 mins. For some reason, I put it on foil but the potatoes still stuck to the foil despite all the oil! I used a spatula to loosen them.

6) Serve IMMEDIATELY because it does get soft really fast!

Mandu

Highly adapted from this recipe because the original mandu recipe was just too involved! I couldn't find a lot of ingredients. Anyhow, I did follow the soup quite closely and it tastes brilliant! I'm surprised.

Ingredients

Kimchijeon

http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kimchijeon 

Ingredients (serves 2 to 4)

1 cup kimchi, chopped

3 tbsp kimchi juice

2 tbsp chopped onion

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup water

Method

1) Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

2) Heat up 1 tbsp of oil and pour in the batter. 

3) Fry for 1.5 minutes on each side, or until the pancake slides easily in the pan, and the bottom is golden brown.

4) Serve immediately or chop up into squares.

Kimchi jigae

http://koreanfood.about.com/od/soupsandstews/r/Kimchichigae.htm

Ingredients: (serves 4)

• 3/4 lb beef, pork, or canned tuna*, thinly sliced
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 2 cups kimchi (the kind made with Napa cabbage), roughly chopped
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 Tbsp kochujang
• 1 Tbsp kochukaru

Preparation:
1. If using beef or pork, saute in 1/2 Tbsp sesame oil in soup pot for a few minutes. If using pork, you can halve or omit the oil at this point.
2. Add kimchi to pot and stir-fry for about five minutes.
3. Add remaining oil, onion, garlic, kochujang, and kochukaru, mixing to combine.
4. Pour water into the pot and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to simmer.
6. Cook for 20-30 minutes, adding tofu after the first 10 minutes and scallions at the very end

Kimchi

Made Mak (wombak) and oisobagi (cucumber) kimchi

Recipes from Maangchi:

Oisobagi kimchi

Mak kimchi

I had to improvise - couldn't find the Korean hot pepper flakes so used paprika. Gave it a smokey sweet flavour which I'm sure purists would yell at me for! Also, ran out of fish sauce so used just a bit of soya sauce for the salt.

Overall, given that I used about 1kg of wombak and 3 long cucumbers, the kimchi paste doesn't seem enough. I omitted the porridge, so I guess this is where the difference is. Next time (if there is a next time because this was uber tiring!) I will use original Korean ingredients!

Updated with photo on 28 Jan 15 with proper gochugaru. 1 wombak with 3 carrots and 2 pears makes 1.5 kg of kimchi.

Updated on 16 Dec 16: I came across another recipe from Kitchn which explains the kimchi making process from a foreigner's point of view. The thing about having a foreigner narrate is that she is able to explain things from a fresh pair of eyes compared to someone who is native and may have taken things for granted. 

- She doesn't use the 'porridge' that Maangchi does.

- Apparently putting in carrots are a no-no?

- I found out adding too much ginger makes it sticky but adding too much garlic makes the kimchi bitter. I've been experiencing the latter towards the end of the shelf life of my kimchi but could never explain! I've always attributed it to being over fermented.

- Salt matters! Use kosher rather than table or iodized because the latter 2 types have caking agents which may inhibit the salting process. I've noticed that my salted veg doesn't become pliable but snaps even after salting for 2 hours. Another recipe said to soak for 4 hours until the veg stems were bendy rather than snapped but who has time for that?

- Leaving space on top before capping it. I used to think that I should pack it tightly and to the brim to prevent air. One time I had kimchi juice just oozing out and out of my jars. Every day I would mop up the fridge (and it stank!) and next day, they'd be more. I didn't figure it out until much later when I realised that as it ferments, it creats gas so needs space to expand. So I shouldn't be packing it too tight!

Squidy hard boiled eggs

Ingredients for this are pretty obvious - eggs. In this case, where everything is almost an scientific experiment, it has to be 4 eggs in my smallest AMC pot (which unlike normal pots, retains heat).

The method here is also specific as every factor affects cooking time and thus result:

1) Take 4 eggs out of the fridge (aka cold). Prick a hole in the air sac at the bottom.

2) Boil water. Put the eggs in the pot and fill with the boiling water, just enough to cover the top of the eggs.

3) Turn on the flame and let the temp rise to the middle (12 o'clock) position of the AMC pot. Turn off the heat and leave it to steep for exactly 6 minutes.

4) When time is up, place the eggs in cold water immediately. Once the eggs are cool enough to handle, deshell.