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?