Five spice slow cooked beef

I have many slow cooker beef recipes. But usually they come put too sweet or too sour. The best results came from adding an alcohol like red wine or stout to give the gravy real body, but this recipe is a really goof compromise. This one is right and ecen got the thumbs up from 배!

Ingredients

500g stewing beef (chuck, briskit or osso bucco are my preferred)

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 medium sweet potato, peeld and cubed

4 medium carrots

¼ cup barley

1 onion, chopped

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

2 star anise

5 cloves

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp black pepper corns

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp soya sauce

1 tbsp djion mustard

1 beef stock cube

Method

1) Saute the beef in batches. Set aside. 

2) Crack the star anise, cloves and black pepper corns with the back of a knife.

3) Saute the aromatics. Add back the beef and vegs.

4) Slow cook for 3 to 4 hours until the beef is tender.

Anpan あんパン (Plain flour)

I've been wanting to make this ever since I bought つぶあん anko from the store. However, most of the recipes involved bread and cake flour (e.g. my favourite JOC) and I don't have either. So I looked for a recipe using plain flour and found this.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/5927/anpan

The food blogger said that by removing the egg from the recipe, it more closely simulated the soft texture of the original anpan which uses cake and bread flour.

Alternative recipe that uses water and less milk but makes a smaller batch http://mamaloli.com/recipes/other/anpan/

However, I noticed that most of the recipes, the anpan flattened out upon proving and baking. Not a pretty look. And then I came across this recipe which gave tips on hope to keep the anpan dome-shaped.

http://www.forktobelly.com/2016/05/25/anpan-kitty/
(this recipe is based on JOC but technique has been altered. It also has an alternate sweet potato filling, and shapes each anpan as a kitty)

The trick is that when putting in the filling, flatten out the edges but to keep the centre thicker. Much like when wrapping gyoza, no?

Recipe feedback: I tried the recipe by Fresh Loaf because it uses normal flour but this recipe doesn't work. The omission of bread flour made everything almost soupy. Even after adding an egg and putting in another 1/2 cup of flour, it barely stuck together, but it was very very sticky and very very hard to work with, even giving it 5 minutes rest time in between.

Anpan with cheese brioche on the top right since I ran out of anko (480g can, used 2 level tbsp per bun). Baked at 180 deg C fan-forced for 20 mins using egg yolk with splash of milk as glaze. The buns came out very fluffy but very very dense and heavy for some reason. Not very gluten free, haha!

Recipe to try next time: http://thedomesticgoddesswannabe.com/2014/12/adzuki-bean-bread-buns-豆沙面包-red-bean-bread-buns/

Updated: Used recipe with bread and cake flours. And also mixed in a food processor. Much better result. http://simmetra.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/anpan-mixed-flours.html

Standard brownie recipe

I have several brownie recipes but I'm calling this 'standard' because I found two recipes from two different sites yet both are exactly the same, except for the vanilla and salt. Here are the links:
Centrecutcook: http://www.centercutcook.com/the-best-brownies/
Iambaker: http://iambaker.net/homemade-brownie-mix/

This version is from the first link but I've added comments from the second link.

Ingredients
Wet
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 tsp)

Dry
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup white flour
1/4 tsp salt (or 1 tsp)
1/4 tsp baking power
(optional: my addition) 1/4 cup chopped nuts and/or 1/4 cup chocolate chips and/or 1/4 cup raisins)

Method
1) Prepare a 8*8 inch pan with parchment, or butter and coat with thin layer of flour. I prefer parchment. If I leave a bit of overhang on the side, it makes the brownie easier to remove.
3) Mix the wet. Mix the dry. Combine.
3 Pour into the prepared pan. Bake at 350 deg F (176 deg C) for 25 to 30 mins (check after 22 mins). A skewer inserted should come out mostly clean with some crumbs. You want it slightly under cooked because it will continue to cook in the pan.
4) Cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely before cutting. Otherwise, it will just be a crumby, fudgey mess.

Recipe feedback: I didn't have a square pan and used my 5*7 inch pyrex pan. On my non-fan forced mode in the oven, it took 31 minutes (checking after 25) and it was just the tiniest bit of wobble. I let it cool in the pan for 30 minutes then on a rack completely for 2 hours before cutting.

I realised that it cannot stay in the pan for too long as it continues to cook on the sides but not the middle, but if u take it out too soon, it collapses. The sugar crystallises on cooling, making the top crispy and hard to cut into so cut carefully.

Pajeon dipping sauce

Tried the version from Maangchi but so far, the dough hasn't been right. Despite using a tonne of oil (ok I exaggerate) it wasn't crispy but too doughy. I have tried her haemul jeon and same problem. Possibly because it uses all purpose flour. Other recipes use cake flour, ice cold water, etc. The addition of the dwenjang was good though. But the dipping sauce was fantastic! So I will continue researching but note the dipping sauce recipe here.

Ingredients

2 tbsp soya sauce

1 tbsp vinegar 

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

1 chopped chilli