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.