Thai red fish curry and tomato rice

There's a japanese tomato rice recipe going around. Basically the idea is toss veg, rice and meat into a rice cooker and cook. Embed a whole tomato in the rice and voila. But reduce the amount of water added by about ½ cup for each tomato added. I totally forgot about this so my rice was too soggy, but that will work out since I tend to make enough leftovers, where the rice can get pretty dry if the right amt of water was added initially. The trick with the meat was also to leave it in big enough pieces to cook during the time it takes to cook white rice. Not too small or it will over cook. Decided rice was boring so I switched up to Thai red curry.

Ingredients 

3 cups rice

4 basa fillets, sliced in half

8 white mushrooms, quartered 

3 tomatoes, uncut

1 can coconut milk (400ml)

600ml water

4 tbsp Thai red curry paste

Method

1) Place washed rice at the bottom of the rice cooker pot. Insert the fish pieces upright into the rice. Place tomatoes whole in between the fish slices. Do the same with vegs.

2) Dollop on tsps of the curry paste.

3) Pour in the coconut milk. I used the the rice measuring cup and topped up the rest with water. Since I used 3 tomatoes, I should reduce the total liquid volume by about a cup.

 

4) turn on the rice cooker and cook! Note that my cooker isn't the 'dumb' type so instead of 20 minutes to cook rice, it takes between 40 to 90 minutes! Not great for cooking rice but great fo these one pot meals!

Peanut soup for 冬至

This is ah balling, tang yuan in peanut soup for winter solstice. No brainer for tang yuan, comes out of a packet. But the peanut took lots of work. I read on the internet that no matter how long you slow cook peanuts, they remain hard. I came across this recipe and thought I'd give it a try:

http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com.au/2008/08/introductory-text-picture-goes-here.html

Problem is that despite following the instructions, I still lacked the pressure cooker, so it didn't work! So even though I soaked the peanuts overnight, soaked them in alkaline water, but without the pressure cooker, it's all useless. Nonetheless, it's a great accompaniment for the tang yuan for Dong Zhi, which was really the whole point of the exercise anyway.

Ingredients
300g peanuts
10 cups of water
1/2 cup of rock sugar (top up to taste)
1 tbsp baking powder (perhaps I should have used pure bicarb like the recipe?)

Method

1) Soak the peanuts overnight.

2) Soak the peanuts in the alkali solution for at least 4 hours. Rinse and soak for half hour to remove the alkali, then rinse and soak again. Repeat once more.

3) Here, I slow cooked with 6 hours. The recipe recommends pressure cooking for 30 to 40 minutes from pressurisation. Unfortunately the volume of my pressure cooking is quite small but next time I'll give it a try.

4) Serve with tang yuan!

Milo raisin and Oreo frappe ice creams

I thought I would try a new ice cream recipe that I came across on Cooking with Dog called the milk gelato. The interesting thing was that it didn't use condensed milk but used milk. Really, would milk work? Wouldn't it freeze solid? The impetus for the idea came about because I had almost 4 or 5 litres of fresh milk in my fridge. I abhor milk. However, by the time I dilly dallied and wanted to use up the milk for this recipe, I had already finished drinking it with my coffee, milo, etc. So I ended up using UHT milk.

Maybe that's why this recipe crashed and bombed. First, I used my original recipe of condensed milk and cream, but I halved it and topped up with milk to make 2 portions instead of 1. Bad idea because the oreo frappe came out almost rock solid, very hard to 'dig' out with my ice cream scooper. My milo raisin however was ok (not soft serve but not rock hard), I wonder why? Maybe a higher amount of milk solids? I'm also wondering if the usage of UHT rather than fresh milk had any difference. UHT may have a lower fat content (and I used skimmed milk too!) and that makes it freeze more solidly, whereas the milo one has milk solids in it so it makes it creamier. I don't know, food science does my head in sometimes! So to be fair to Cooking with Dog's recipe, perhaps if I had followed it to the letter (i.e. not used condensed milk but used sugar, not used UHT but used fresh milk), perhaps, it wouldn't have frozen so hard.

Anyway here's the recipe. Taste-wise, it's ok so it's really food science wrecking havoc!

Ice cream ingredients (makes approx 1.75l of ice cream)

300 ml cream suitable for whipping, also called thickened cream

1 tin condensed milk

400 ml milk

For milo raisin: 1/2 cup raisins; 4 tbsp milo, dissolved in 3 tbsp of hot water. Let the mixture cool.

For oreo frappe: 6 oreo biscuits; 2 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 3 tbsp of hot water. Let the coffee cool.

Method

1) Prepare the toppings by mixing the milo and coffee. Set aside to cool. 

2) In a sealed zip loc bag, break up the oreos with a rolling pin. Leave some big chunks for texture.

3) Using a hand or electric whisk, whisk the cream till soft peaks. Distribute into 2 bowls.

4) Distribute equal portions of condensed milk and milk into each of the 2 bowls. Gently fold in so that you don't knock the air out of the cream.

5) To one bowl, add the raisins and milo and gently fold in. To the other bowl, add the oreo chunks and coffee.

6) Pour each bowl into an ice cream container and put them in the freezer.

7) After 3 hours, using a electric whisk or fork, break up the chunks of ice. Repeat every hour subsequently. I did it till I went to bed, i.e. only a further 2 times at hourly intervals. It is especially important to bring up the solids (i.e. raisins and oreos) from the bottom as they tend to settle there.

Soju lime tonic

Drawing inspiration from Internet recipes that pair soju with fruit juices, I bought a bottle of tonic water and was pleasantly surprised. Since soju tastes like vodka, this would probably work too.

Ingredients

1 glass of tonic water

1 tsp lime juice

1 shot soju

Method

Mix and drink!

Oven baked ちんかつ

I have theses 4 pre seasoned pork chops lurking in my freezer. The are meant for grilling but they're difficult to eat because they are way too salty, as if they've been soaked in brine. I was was wondering  what to do with them till I came across this recipe by JOC. For the longest time, I've been looking for a good oven baked cutlet recipe, to substitute deep fried. Nothing has ever worked but this recipe has finally cracked it. All those failed experiments included under/over cooked, pasty/pale looking and uneven cooking. But a few tricks I learnt from those failures include:
1) flat surfaces work best ie fillets, and not chicken wings and my worst experiment: chicken drumsticks
2) not too thick. 1/2 inch or 1.3 cm works best
3) fry the crumbs in oil first. I've tried dredging the crumbs in oil then pasting them on (Jaime's recipe), fell off in clumps
4) not bread crumbs (soggy, thanks Jaime) but panko works best
5) some recipes suggest placing in the fridge to let the flour, egg and breadcrumbs stick but I find the meat becomes cold, then when baking, the meat remains uncooked while the outside burns. Perhaps this works if u use the soggy egg laden wet breadcrumbs then everything dries out at the same rate.
6) place on a grilling or oven rack, over a roasting tin to catch crumbs. This might work for non fillets like chicken pieces, but not necessary for this surprisingly.

Ingredients
4 pork chops, hand sized. I dunno, that's 200g? Not more than 1.4cm thick
1 egg, beaten
⅓ cup corn starch
½ cup panko
1 tbsp oil

Salt and pepper

Method
1) In a flat bottomed pan, preferably non-stick, pour in the panko and oil. Turn on the flame and start stir frying gently to incorporate. Fry till golden brown and stir often so that it doesn't burn. Once done, set aside to cool.

2) At this point, JOC suggests using a meat pounder to tenderize but I don't bother. However, as she suggests, I do make snips between the fat and connective tissue so that the fillet doesn't curl up.

3) Salt and pepper both sides of the fillets. (I didn't do this step because mine were already pre seasoned)
4) Place the flour, egg, and panko in flat bottomed and plates that aren't too deep. In order, place pork chop in flour, pat off excess. Followed by egg, then place in the plate of panko and press on.
5) Place on a flat cookie sheet with a rim, on top of baking parchment.
6) Bake in a preheated 200 deg C oven for 15 to 20 minutes till the juices bubble out and run clear.

This one has garlic butter in the middle, so the centre is raised. I find it didn't make the cutlet any more juicy.

Hamburg steak

I don't why these are not called hamburgers, because that's clearly what they are, but nonetheless, I won't argue with the recipe writer.

Got this from Cooking with Dog, there are two variations: with cheese and without. The video is worth watching because Chef shows how massage the meat to get the patty to 'stick' together, and it's not just about the usual binding agents like egg and bread crumbs.

So here's my collation of both, except mine came without cheese.

Ingredients (makes 8 man sized patties)
1kg beef (Chef makes up half the volume with pork mince as well)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Crack of black pepper
Crack of rock salt
1 tsp tomato sauce
2 slices of bread, finely chopped into breadcrumbs
Splash of milk
2 eggs, beaten
½ onion, chopped
2 tbsp water
Corn flour for dusting (optional)

Method
1) Chop up onions. If wanted, these can be fried off till translucent, but I'm lazy
2) Use hands to combine the mince till gluey.
3) Add all the sauces, pepper, salt, milk, egg and onion.
4) Massage till combined and it leaves the bowl.
5) Oil your hands. Divide up into 8 portions with your palm. Take one portion and toss between your palms to knock out the air. Form into a ball then flatten into a patty, and put an indentation in the centre with your finger to make it cook faster in the centre.
6) (optional) Dredge in flour and dust off the excess. Set aside.
7) Heat a skillet and add oil. Using medium flame, place the patties on top. When it has slightly solidified, shake the pan or rotate for more even cooking. This side takes about 5 minutes. When nicely browned, turn over.
8) After a further 5 minutes of browning, add 1 tbsp of water. Cover and turn down the flame, cooking for a further 5 to 7 minutes so the inside is cooked. Test with a skewer to see if the juices run clear. The water may not have fully evaporated, so you can remove the cooked patties and make a sauce (e,g 1 tsp soya sauce, fried onions)
9) Serve with bun and/or salad.

Sweet caramel chilli sauce

What do you do with a glut of chillis from very generous chilli plants going into overdrive thanks to spring and just a bit of fertiliser? I could make rempah, or I decided to try sweet chilli sauce.

Went through a few recipes on the Net and got some interesting ideas, so decided to do a Thai inspired version. After all, sweet chilli sauce is Thai, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I this added garlic, ginger and nam pla (fish sauce). I also came across a recipe that used brown sugar instead of normal sugar, so I did half brown sugar. The result is that although the sauce isn't transparent like the commercial versions we see, there is a caramel taste and combined with the sour, reminds me of my trips to Thailand and those sweet, spicy and sour tamarind sweets wrapped in multicolour wrappers. Oh I miss travelling!

Ingredients (makes 1 pickling jar of sauce)
300g of chillis. I used about 25 to 30 large Asian chillis.
2 cups white vinegar (I'm told rice vinegar is less acrid tasting)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
⅓ cup fish sauce
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp garlic
1 tbsp cornstarch in 2 tbsp water

Method
1) I don't like it too spicy, so I deseeded half the chillis. Roughly chop or snip with a scissors into the bowl of a food processor. Process till finely chopped, but not yet a paste. You want to see the seeds and flakes of chilli.
2) Pour chilli, vinegar and sugar into a pot. On medium high flame, stir till you no longer feel the grittiness of the sugar. Don't let it boil, or the sugar will burn.
3) Reduce to a simmer and let the sauce reduce, about 30 to 40 minutes till syrupy. Stir every 5 minutes so it doesn't catch and burn at the bottom.
4) When you are satisfied with the syrupy texture, drizzle in the cornstarch mixture and turn off the flame. It took me 35 minutes to get the consistency I wanted.
5) The mixture is essentially molten sugar. Let it cool about 20 minutes before transferring to a sterilized jam jar or bottle.
6) Store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.

Feedback on recipe: I would omit the corn starch, which was suggested by some recipes, from future recipes. After cooling down, the sauce became too thick, more like jam! I didn't know that would happen.

Spaghetti alla cabonara

So easy to make and perfect for lazy cooks like me.

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 packet 250g dry spaghetti

4 eggs

1 cup grated cheese

6 rashers of bacon, sliced thinly

½ tsp nutmeg

3 sprigs of rosemary

3 bay leaves

Method

1) Cook the packet of spaghetti according to instructions. Drain but reserve 1 cup of the pasta water.. Set aside.

2) While pasta is cooking, fry the bacon till crispy. Drain on kitchen paper.

3) In a bowl, beat the 4 eggs with nutmeg, then mix in the grated cheese. Put in the rosemary and bay and mix well.

4) Timing is essential. You need the heat of the pasta to 'cook' the pasta, so the minute it's been drained, pour in the eggy cheesy mixture and fold in. Add pasta water bit by bit if it gets too craggy.

5) Serve immediately. It doesn't reheat well so only cook what you need.

Oven baked rosti

I got this idea from Jamie Oliver's Money Saving Meals, but it didn't quite turn out the way I expected. Ah well, I think I did several things wrong to begin with.

First off, I used waaay too much stuff (which didn't turn out to be that much in the end because I got a bigger baking sheet) - 1 sweet potato, 2 potatoes and 3 carrots. Jamie's recipe only called for 2 spuds and 2 carrots. Secondly, I accidentally washed it. I recalled when making kimchi, it's easier to get the osmosis process going if I soak in water. Mistake, I realised I was washing off the starch which is what's needed to make it 'stick' together! His original recipe isn't too far off from other oven-baked rosti recipes on the web, aka the food science is thereabouts.

Anyway, here's my improve of the recipe:

Ingredients
1 sweet potato (peeled)
2 potatoes (peeled)
3 carrots (peeled)
Salt
Olive oil

Method
1) Grate everything. Put it in a large tea towel and sprinkle on some salt. Let it sit in a strainer, then use a tea towel and squeeze the hell out of it. (Here's where I went wrong - I attempted to wash off the salt and realised too late, that I was washing off the starch!) However, since it can't be washed off, be careful how much salt you add, you don't want it to be overly salty!
2) I left the grated stuff sitting in a strainer in a bowl, to catch the juices. After an hour, my, there was about a cup of juice!
3) Pat down into a roasting tray (I used a lined cooking sheet because my roasting tray wasn't big enough!)
4) This part I'm foggy - I can't recall the temperature or time Jamie took, so I thought I'd chance it. I did 45 minutes at 200 deg and the top just started to brown, but inside was cooked but still soggy. Checked the web, apparently I should have done 190 deg C for 1 hr 15 minutes or thereabouts.

Anyway, tada! At least it's cooked with some crispy charred bits. Better than nothing!

 And goes great with teriyaki beef!

Ramyeon taste test

U Inspired by this blog post, I decided to collate my own list based on the ones available in my local Taiwanese supermarket. Not all the brands listed in that blog review can be found in this supermarket, so maybe after this review, it's time to take a walk to the Korean supermarket a bit further away. Here are my tasting notes on 5 types. I found Korean ramyeon is more costly than the usual instant noodles, so decided to buy individual packets which although cost more individually, but I can taste more varieties and not end up stuck with a $6 packet of 5 in some horrible flavour that eventually gets thrown away! All reviews are compared against my usual Nongshim Shim (or Shin?) ramyeon, that #1 best seller of ramyeon with it's super spicy and nicely salty taste.

1. Paldo cheese

Interesting taste. It has it's own cheese powder, on top of the usual seasoning and frozen veg (geondeogi) packets. It certainly is cheesy with a mild spicy taste but I'm not sure I'm really sold. Since I love cheese, it is a pleasant flavour but I have to overcome my mental block on having cheese in Asian food. The cheese tastes like powdered cheese, ie. think Kraft powdered cheese that you get to sprinkle (on in my case, pour) on top of pasta. But because it's in soup, so it's weird slurping a cheesy soup. It probably shouldn't be such a big deal because I have put a cheese slice on my budae jigae, which was delish so it shouldn't be strange but it is.

Rating: 3 bowls (out of 5)

2. Samyang kimchi 

This is less spicy than my usual Shim ramyeon but a but sourish, which is pleasant but not overly sour. It does not come with the the veg packet. But if were to compare with Shim, it does pale in comparison. There seems to be less taste, other than a mild sourness and spiciness.

Rating: 2 bowls

3. Nongshim kimchi

I lost the original post so I'm really just relying on memory. I think this was less sourish than Samyang and the rehydrated kimchi gave a nice umame feel and tasted like the real thing. Can't recall much else. More spicy than Samyang too I think.

Rating: 3 bowls

4. Paldo Jjajangmyeon

My first jjm test. Interesting because the noodles are a lot more al dente than normal ramyeon. But that also means it took 5 minutes of microwaving instead of the usual 3. The noodles had a nice fried taste. This came with a sauce packet (with fake meat bits?) rather than the usual powder, and recommends leaving some water behind from cooking the noodles. Taste wise, tastes like Bovril, perhaps because of the onions which would undoubtedly be preserved. Overall, not bad because very moorish (slightly sweet and salty) but still not close to jjm.

Ratings: 4 bowls

5. Nongshim JJM

Ok this really doesn't look like much but tastes far more authentic than Paldo. Problem is that it came with a soup base, oil and veg packet, and I must admit I was disappointed when I opened it. The noodles are similarly al dente with the fried taste, and also require 5 mins, altho they seem to suck up more water than Paldo. The veg packet also comes with fake dried meat. Still deducting a star for presentation ie no sauce packet and no sticky sauce even though I was also instructed to leave water behind (perhaps that's why the noodles sucked up all that water?) but taste is definitely superior to Paldo.

Rating: 4 bowls

6. Paldo Namja

Touted as the man's ramyeon, it's supposed to be spicer than others, but I would only say that it's in the Paldo range. Frankly, I can't discern the difference between this and my usual Shim, the taste and even the dried veg packets are similar, and neither is the noodle cake bigger or smaller than Shim. It actually tastes exactly the same, except maybe it's less intensely hot and salty. So it can be a milder version of shim, nice for summer when I don't need to be sweating over it as I do with Shim, which means I usually avoid Shim during hot weather.

Rating: 3 bowls

7. Nongshim Neoguri

This is an interesting noodle but I think it's Japanese inspired, and it's called udon, perhaps meant to be tanuki udon. The veg packet includes tenkasu, which are tempura bits. The noodle is also a bit al dante and the soup is more peppery than spicy. Interesting different tasting ramyeon because it's not the standard salty, spicy and/or sour but I'm not sure about the purpose of the tenkasu since it's just soggy in the soup.

Rating: 4 bowls

8. Nongshim Angsungtang myun

Other than the spiciness level, this tastes exactly like the Shim ramyeon but less spicy (and maybe a little less sweet), and no wonder too, they are both by Nongshim. The main difference however is that the dried food packet is noticeably missing. I don't recall whether Shim is more expensive, I guess it should be if one ingredient is missing. I think I will stick to the 'real' thing.

Rating: 2 bowls

Update: Among all my blog posts since I started blogging in 2005, this blog post has taken the most time and effort to write. 2 months! But it's finally done.

Microwave mug brownie Take 2

Since my first attempt here, I've found 2 new recipes and itching to try both. I didn't like using baking powder in lieu of the self-raising flour, so these 2 recipes are an improvement because they use neither.

1) 1 minute only, uses butter: http://www.taste.com.au/kitchen/recipes/1+minute+microwave+chocolate+brownie+in+a+mug,33030

2) 1 to 2 minutes, uses oil: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/brownie_in_a_mug/

Arguably, butter is going to taste much nicer than oil but there isn't any reason why I can't replace the oil with the butter. Other than that, the 2 recipes are largely similar except #2 adds cinnamon and #1 adds starts with wet and adds dry but #2 starts with dry and adds wet. Apparently, it's always better to mix both separately then add wet to dry to prevent it becoming a claggy, lumpy mess but that's more than 1 mug's work, so I'll settle for mixing dry, then creating a well in the centre and adding wet.

Oh and I need to use milk instead of water this time!

Updated 22 Feb 2015: Tried to combine the recipes by using melted butter and adding an egg to make it more spongy. It turned out strange, like eating kueh after a minute. Will probably not try adding the egg. Not very palatable.

Updated 23 Feb 2015: Tried the first recipe again in its entirety. Turned out so dry, I even had to add another tbsp of water to wet all the dry ingredients! After cooking in the microwave on high for 1 minute, it was ready but felt like eating sweet chocolate flour. Dry. Not trying again. 

Coleslaw

Got this recipe off the internet http://m.wikihow.com/Make-KFC-Coleslaw. Works pretty well!

Ingredients

¼ head of cabbage, sliced thinly

3 carrots, peeled and shredded

5 tsp sugar or more to taste

3 tbsp white vinegar

1 cup mayo, i used the Korean version

1 cup milk

¼ onion (i omitted because I don't like onion and heard they don't keep well in lunch boxes! they go bad)

Method

1) Put vegs in a salad bowl.

2) Put the sugar into the vinegar and whisk to combine. Pour on top of vegs to 'cook' the rawness out of the cabbage.

3) Toss with salad tools.

4) Add the mayo and milk and toss again.

5) Cling film and put in the fridge to chill.

And what it looks like with the rest of the southern comfort food: oven fried chicken and fries

Mandu

Been wanting to try this for a long time. Forgot to add the mushrooms and i don't eat chives, but otherwise the recipe worked a charm.

My portions made only 30 (Maangchi's recipe is for 60), so there wasn't enough to try the soup version. Next time. Oh, there was lots of leftover filling so we made 5-spiced rolls, also known as gor heong.

Ingredients

500g minced pork

500g minced beef

4 tbsp light soya sauce

4 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp cooking rice wine

5 dashes of white pepper

2 tbsp crushed ginger

2 tbsp minced garlic

(Optional) 8 finely crushed ikan billis, or I used a tsp of dashi powder

30 mandu skins

Method

1) Mix everything together and let it marinade overnight.

2) Wrap! Best to watch Maangchi's video. http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/mandu

3) Dust with flour to prevent them sticking together.

4) To cook, you can either fry or boil. If frying, in a shallow skillet, pour a bit of oil and brown the sides io the mandu, about 1 min a side. Then sprinkle on the water and cover to steam, another 3 minutes.

5) To boil, chuck in boiling water. Once it floats, it's ready. Use a slotted spoon to remove. It can be served with soup or Sichuan chilli oil.

Unagi sauce

Love this recipe! It was actually for unadon, but courtesy of this recipe, I've now found a good Japanese food blogger, other than Cooking with Dog, of course!

¼ cup mirin
¼ cup soya sauce
1.5 tbsp sake
2.5 tbsp sugar

Boil away miring and sake to evaporate alcohol, then melt sugar and add soy. Simmer for 20 minutes and done!

I decided to microwave everything. So it was 1.5 minutes on 70% power, stir, add sugar, 2 mins on 50% power and 1 min on 30% power, add soya, then 4 mins on 10% power, stopping halfway to stir.

Served on green tea rice

Chinese oso bucco

I've heard a lot about this cut of meat. Very Italian and I had no idea how to cook it so have put off buying it till now. Even as it lay in my freezer, i still put it off because of the electricity needed to slow cook it. But as it turns our, it wasn't so bad. Downside is that it only serves 2, more pieces and I'm sure my cooking time and hence my electricity bill increases too! Woolies where I bought it from helpfully provided a Chinese inspired recipe but since I was out of hoisin, I had to improvise.

Ingredients
3 pieces osso bucco
1 tsp sweet chilli sauce (i used linghams because I find sweet chilli sauce too watery, but this made my stew rather spicy)
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
Grind of black pepper
1 tsp crushed ginger
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 small onion, chopped
3 potatoes, cubed
3 carrots, cubed
3 handfuls of barley
Approx 300ml water

Method
1) Brown the osso bucco in a bit of oil. When sufficiently browned, add the onion, garlic and ginger. If using a slow cooker, transfer to the cooker. Water should just cover everything but not submerge it.
2) Put in all the remaining ingredients. When it comes to a boil, skim off any scum.
3) Periodically stir and skim. Total cooking time is 2 hours on the slow cooker.
4) Serve garnished with cut chilli, on a bed of jasmine rice.

Minestrone soup

This is what I would call winter soup or 'everything also put leftover veg in fridge' soup. Yes, basically any leftover, less then stellar fresh veg can go in but some stalwarts which make the base of the soup that cannot be omitted are carrots, potatoes and onions. Everything else is variable.

This is also a slow cooker recipe so peeling the vegs aren't essential because everything will probably still fall apart, and the skin has all the nutrients. Dicing the hard vegs is important but again, they don't have to be diced too small because this is a slow cooker recipe and eventually, it's all going to be blitzed anyway.

Ingredients
¼ pumpkin
4 carrots, cubed
½ cabbage, shredded
3 potatoes, peeled and diced
½ cup barley
½ onion, diced
1 can of stewed tomatoes
1 tbsp chicken or veg stock cube or bullion (I used chicken Knorr powder)

Method
1) Pour all the vegs into the pot.
2) Pour enough water to cover everything.
3) Slow cook for approx 1 - 2 hours.
4) Blitz everything with a handheld blender. You can do this really roughly so you leave some texture behind rather than just a messy mess.
5) Can be drunk hot or kept for the next day and drunk cold if so inclined, maybe during summer?

Potato salad

Here are 3 different potato salads.

Japanese by Cooking with Dog: Potato Salad Recipe ポテトサラダ 作り方 レシピ - YouTube

Japanese by JustOneCookbook: http://www.justonecookbook.com/recipes/japanese-potato-salad/

Korean gamja salad by Maangchi: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/gamja-salad

The cooking method differs slightly, and the resulting Korean gamja salad is a lot more like creamy ice cream texture and the egg isn't mashed either, whereas with the Japanese one, the potato isn't mashed, so you can almost see whole bits of egg and potato. Different presentation and mouth feel but otherwise, a same interpretation of the same fusion recipe. JOC follows the Korean one.

I decided to mash the egg yolk, carrots and potatoes, but chopped the egg white and cucumber, aka more Korean style.

Updated with picture of more Japanese style where everything is more whole.

Brekkie burrito wrap

Breakfast of champions, as Hungry Jack's always advertises. So easy to make at home - take that, Hungry Jacks!

Ingredients
1 to 2 tortilla per person (This recipe makes 3 wraps)
4 mushrooms, sliced
3 bacon strips
½ cup grated cheese
mayo (I used the Japanese version)
3 eggs

Method
1) Grill the bacon until the fat is rendered, then grill it to your level of crispiness/doneness. Set aside.
2) Using the fat from the bacon, do the sunny side up eggs and fry the mushroom slices.
3) To assemble tortilla wrap, place 1 tortilla on a square/rectangle of aluminium foil, shiny side inwards (in contact with the tortilla). Squish on the mayo, then place the bacon, egg on top and scatter on the mushrooms and cheese.

4) Gather both sides of the tortilla and roll it into a cigar shape. Repeat with the foil, be careful not to roll the foil into your wrap because you don't want to be eating foil! Secure the foil tightly on both ends of the burrito. This is an important step because you don't want the egg and cheese flowing out onto your hands when you eat the burrito!

5) In a 220 deg C preheated oven, grill the burrito for about 5 minutes. Tear (rather than unroll) the foil around the burrito, and hold on tightly to the 'cigar' to reveal its lovely gooey-ness and savour immediately!

Giam cai gai tong (Salted veg chicken soup)

Winter is finally here so it's time to whip out the soups and stews. This is traditionally cooked with duck but that's in short supply for me, so chicken will do. I checked the Internet and found a few recipes, with Noobcook looking the best, so here's my adaptation. I love my rice cooker because it doubles up as a slow cooker. Great because i can pop everything into the pot then forget about it as i go about my vacuuming and mopping and when I'm done, so is dinner!

Ingredients

1.2 kg chicken drumsticks (6 drumsticks)

2 tomatoes, cubed

1 packet of salted veg (xiao bai cai) 250g approx?

1 tbsp minced ginger 

Enough water to cover 

2 carrots, cubed 

Method

1) Wash the salted veg to remove all the brine. I even soaked it for 5 mins just to remove more of the salt, then rinsed it again. I know some other more health conscious recipes soak it for ½ hour but the last time i tried that, there was no taste left at all! Maybe it varies from brand to brand, so to be safe, I tasted the veg to see whether it needed to be soaked longer.

2) Chuck everything into the pot, except the tomatoes. Pour enough water to cover. If I really dug into my Cantonese roots, at this point, I would scald the meat in boiling water and throw that away to remove any blood and other impurities. But since housework awaits, I did the next best thing, which was just to periodically skim off scum and oil. 

3) Slow cook for 1 to 2 hours. You could of course simmer this on the stove at a slow boil for a similar amount of time. 10 minutes from the end, add the tomatoes. Check for seasoning, it's unlikely that the soup will require more salt but you can add pepper.

4) Serve with rice.

Braised soya sauce pork

On my second attempt, success! I adapted the recipes from Here and it seemed to work quite well the difference being that I used the right cut of pork, belly pork instead of shoulder or twee bak, and left the skin on, which made it meltingly gelatinous. Both recipes didn't add tau pok which I consider to be essential. It is important to try to keep the pork belly whole. Altho it takes longer to cook, it keeps the pork moist during cooking.

Ingredients
1kg of belly pork
2 + 5 tbsp light soya sauce
2+ 10 tbsp dark soya sauce
2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp ginger
1 tbsp garlic
1 tbsp 5 spice powder
5 cloves
4 star anise
1 cinnamon stick (i cheated using 1 tbsp cinnamon powder since I didn't have the stick version)
3 tbsp sugar
1 tau kwa, cubed
1 packet tau pok
6 eggs

Method
1) Marinade pork, preferably overnight, in 2 tbsp each of light soya, dark soya, 1 tbsp sugar and rice wine.
2) Transfer to a pot and put in another 5 tbsp light soya, 10 tbsp dark soya, 2 tbsp sugar and then all the other ingredients. Additional rice wine is optional. Add water, enough to cover.
3) Bring to a boil then simmer and skim off the fat and impurities. Simmer till cooked, approx 20 mins (my AMC pot needs only 10). Add in the tau pok and tau kwa in the last 5 minutes if using. Turn off the flame and let steep for about 45 minutes to absorb the flavours.
4) In another pot, boil the eggs. I bring the eggs up from cold water, eggs out of the fridge, then bring to a boil and turn off. The eggs steep for approx 6 minutes to get the shoyu squidgy egg consistency, but this needs to be peeled very very carefully. Otherwise, hard boiled eggs take about 10 minutes if steeping time, depending on your pot. (Yes, i used AMC again)
5) Add the carefully peeled eggs into the main pot at the same time as the toufu products. If using shoyu egg, only serve it but don't steep it in the sauce, otherwise the salt draws out the moisture and u end up with hard boiled egg, which kinda defeats the purpose and wastes your efforts. If adding in hard boiled eggs, you may need to periodically rotate the egg to get an even coloring.
6) Serve with warm rice.

Everything is still 'bek bek' because it hasn't had time to steep, but you get the idea!

Buttermilk grill pan waffles Mark II

I first tried Jamie Oliver's recipe, which I posted here. However, problem is that I don't have self-raising flour, so I substituted with baking powder. Unfortunately, that equates to 5 tsps of baking power, which as you can imagine, means a whole mouthful of baking soda - not a very pleasant taste. I also thought I'd give HCP a try and while it works, it doesn't have the ridges that grill pans have, so I'd probably go back to using a grill pan. I don't think it's anything wrong with Jamie's recipe but my substitution. Nonetheless, I thought I'd try another recipe.

From this blog who also got the idea from Jamie Oliver, but decided to use her own recipe. Problem is, her recipe uses buttermilk or yoghurt and if I'm going to substitute with things again...who knows what will happen?

From http://www.alwaysorderdessert.com/2012/08/grill-pan-waffles-how-to-make-waffles.html

Mint and honey mustard chicken

I've done a mustard honey recipe before but since I had tonnes of mint in the garden thanks to some fertiliser, insecticide and summer, I thought I might as well put it to good use.

Ingredients

400g chicken thigh, deboned and deskinned, cut into chunks

10 mushrooms, sliced

¼ cabbage sliced thinly (optional because this was in the fridge. U can put in chopped carrots too)

1 handful washed fresh mint leaves

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp grained mustard

2 tbsp honey

3 tbsp soya sauce

1 tbsp corn flour

½ cup water

1 tsp crushed garlic

1 tsp crushed ginger

Method

1) Using a food processor, blitz together the mint, honey, mustard and olive oil into a smooth paste.

2) Pour the marinade over the chicken, and together with the corn starch and soya sauce, mix everything together well. Leave to marinade for at least an hour.

3) In a wok, stir fry the aromatics (garlic and ginger) briefly till aromatic. Be careful not to burn.

4) Drain the chicken and stir fry the chicken till 75% cooked. Add the vegetables and stir fry again till well incorporated.

5) When the vegetables wilt, add the water. When the liquid comes to the boil, turn down to a simmer and cover with a lid. Simmer till cook, approximately 7 minutes.

6) Serve immediately with steamed rice.

5 spice Oxtail stew

I used to eat this quite often as a child. It was always delicious, and one of the best memories of childhood. I don't know the exact childhood recipe, but there is still a little glamour involved in eating  oxtail stew compared to eating plain boring beef stew, and this is the best beef-ish stew I've had in ages!

Ingredients
1kg oxtail (ensure at least one medium sized bone for each person)
250g stewing beef, cubed (there really isn't much meat on the ox tails after removing the bones)
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp black peppers
1 tbsp Szechuan peppers
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tbsp 5 spice
3 star anise
3 cloves
3 sticks of cinnamon
1 l water
1 can stout (about 475ml)
1 cup flour
½ big onion
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp crushed ginger
8 sticks of celery (sliced)
4 medium carrots (chopped into big cubes)
2 big potatoes or 2 medium ones (chopped into big cubes)
3 tbsp light soya sauce or salt to taste

Method
1) Using a freezer bag, pour in the oxtail, beef and flour and shake to coat.
2) Shake off the excess flour and sauté the beef pieces in a little oil in a screaming hot pan. Don't crowd the pan to ensure that the beef is nicely browned. Put the browned meat in a stewing pot. I prefer to use a slow cooker but it can also cook at a low heat (130 deg C) in the oven.
3) Sauté the onions slowly till caramelised, then add in the ginger and garlic and briefly sauté. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Place in the stewpot. Sauté the vegetables briefly till slightly softened. Pour into the stewpot.
4) Place all the herbs and spices, except the salt, into a stock bag and place it in the pot with the ginger and garlic.
5) Pour in the stout and top up with water to cover everything. Once the liquid comes to a boil, skim off the scum. Leave it it to cook for 6 hours. Periodically open to skim off the scum and oil.
6) 1 hour before it's ready, add the soya sauce. Adding it too early will cause the meat to stop tenderizing.
7) At the end, check for seasoning and serve with rice or crusty bread. If you can wait a day, leaving the stew to steep overnight will let the flavours develop.

Gluten free banana pancakes

Gluten free banana pancakes is a fancy name for banana omelettes. What they are, are essentially just bananas and eggs, hence, flour free and thus, gluten free.

Got the recipe from the internet but although it was touted as being so easy, it really isn't. Easy to prepare maybe, but difficult in cooking. Because there was no flour, it was difficult to turn over compared to pancakes, and i really had to make sure it was slightly more than golden brown before doing so. Because of the high sugar content of the bananas, it needed more oil than normal pancakes, so it meant I had to add oil to my non stick pan after each pancake and clean the pan of burnt sugars.

Difficult to perfect and come out with a flawless pancake that wasn't torn, but the taste is fantastic because it's naturally sweet and texture wise, it literally melts in the mouth.

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 bananas

2 eggs

Dash of cinnamon sugar

Dash of vanilla extract

Method 

1) Mash up the banana in a bowl. Try it get them as mashed up as possible and without as many big lumps as possible.

2) Lightly whisk up the eggs and incorporate into the mashed bananas. Add the cinnamon and vanilla.

3) Lightly oil and heat up a non stick pan and using an ice cream scoop, scoop the mixture into the centre, swirling the pan to get as best as circular shape as u can.

4) You have to be really patient. Start the flame on high and after 2 minutes, turn it down to medium. The smaller and flatter the pancakes (hence, no big banana lumps), the faster it cooks. I test where're it's ready to turn by using my spatula to touch the edges and trying to gently move it. If it's still stuck it's not yet ready to flip. It may need to be more golden brown than you're used to but not a worry, the browning is due to the caramelisation from the sugars in the banana, so it's not really burning, but this is also the reason I turn down the fire so it really won't burn!

5) When the edges shrink back slightly from the pan (about 5 minutes in total) gently use the spatula to slide under the pancake and flip over. Give it another 2 minutes. This is much longer than real pancakes!

6) Before cooking the next pancake, pour on more oil and also scrape away any burnt sugars. This reduces and catching of the next pancake on the pan, and unnecessary burning.

7) Serve with butter and more syrup if preferred.