One pot prawn puttanesca

I have been wanting to try this revipe tor a long long time but never bought anchovies on account of its bad reputation. I can't speak for other recipes but it clearly works here.

Adapted from Nigella: https://www.nigella.com/recipes/sluts-spaghetti

Ingredients

8 anchovies (half a bottle) with half a bottle of oil

1 tbsp minced garlic

5 chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp dried chilli flakes

1 tbsp paprika

10 to 12 black olives

250g sphagettini

1 big glass of water

10 to 12 frozen prawns

Method

1) Chop the black olives and anchovies finely.

2) In a heated pan on a medium high heat, add the anchovies and olives and mush them up. 

3) Once the aroma hits you, add the garlic, chopped tomatoes, dried chilli flakes and paprika.

4) Break up the sphagettini and stir it in. It's nice if it gets a but scorched. Add the water and frozen prawns. Stir to incorporate. Cover and turn down the heat to let it simmer till the pasta is cooked al dente, about 5 minutes.

5) Towards the last 2 minutes, uncover and turn up the heat to evaporate the excess liquid to thicken the sauce.

6) Serve immediately.

Baked Tori katsu

http://www.justonecookbook.com/crispy-baked-chicken/

Being fresh out of eggs, I coated this in Hoisin sauce then breaded it with fried panko.

Recipe feedback: 

1) baked at 220 deg C for 10 to 15 minutes depending on thickness of chicken thigh.

2) the wire mesh is crucial, as is frying the panko beforehand. Didnt even have to turn. 

a) I tried with just putting the katsu flat on a baking sheet, came out soggy due to condensatiom that formed after 5 minutes outside the oven.

b) For the katsu that I coated with unfried panko then sprayed with oil before going into the oven, it also came out soggy, but in a pool of oil.

Baked sweet potato fries

This is a great recipe from http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/09/12/baked-sweet-potato-fries/

There are several tips I learnt:

1) Cut everything to around the same size. French fry size is great.
2) Dredge is cornstarch. Flick off excess corn starch.
3) Dredge is salt and a spice (I chose pepper, cayenne, paprika, and garlic powder).
4) Dredge in oil. Olive seems to work best. Maybe peanut might, haven't tried but certainly not corn or soya bean oils.
5) Lay flat on a lined baking tray and ensure that they don't touch so that the water can evaporate.
6) Bake at 200 deg C for 20 minutes, and then turn the pan (if too lazy to turn the individual chips) and bake for another 20 minutes. Take out and once cool, bake again for 10 minutes on a low shelf.
7) Alternatively, after the initial 40 minutes, switch off the oven and leave it in the residual heat for up to another half hour or till ready to eat. This way the chips don't get cold.

Ravioli lasagne

Got the recipe off the Internet. Not difficult. Assemble 1 box of prepared ravioli, pour over half a pasata bottle, scatter on a layer of cheese, toss on some herbs. Repeat till ravioli is used up.

Bake at 200 deg C for ½ hr, then 10 minutes at 210 deg C for 10 minutes till top is golden. Serve but watch out for the bubbling scaldingly hot sauce!

Tau huay (soya bean curd 豆花）

Adapted from this recipe: http://www.ellenaguan.com/2012/03/soy-milk-beancurd-pudding.html

Used store bought sweetened soy milk from the Asian supermarket.

She used 500ml of soy milk and 2 tsp gelatine powder but I doubled to 4 tsp for 1 l of milk. It became a bit too rubbery. Might try 3 tsp gelatine next time.

Going to use canned fruit as the syrup and top with fruit.

Updated with 3 tsp gelatine. Best! Very fall apart wobbly soft.

Other link using agar agar: http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/homemade-tofufah.html

ギョザ Gyoza

Made from scratch using this recipe: http://www.justonecookbook.com/gyoza-wrappers/

Didn't use the cookie cutter but I should have. Ended up with wonky shaped gyoza. Took me quite along time to get the thickness and size right, made worse by initial bad pleating. The wrapper dough was a dream to work with, not too wet nor dry, didnt stick at all.

Ingredients for wrapper (i only managed 34 tho the recipe said 42 to 44. Maybe some of my wrappers were too big)

2 cups flour, sifted

120 -150 ml just boiled water

½ tsp salt

Filling

250g pork

½ can water chestnut, finely diced

¼ cup diced rehydrated shitake

14 prawns, minced

Method

1) Add salt to the water and stir to dissolve. 

2) Add the water slowly to the sifted flour. Use a butter knife and using a cutting motion, incorporate. It may need 120ml or more, I used all. With the last remaining bits, use your hands.

3) Work the dough to see if it's too sticky (add a bit of flour) or dry. Mine was too dry and I simple wet my hands to avoid adding too much water. Knead for 10 to 15 minutes till relatively smooth. Cover with cling wrap and leave to rest for 30 minutes.

4) While the dough is resting, prepare the filling. Add everything together and stir with chopsticks ij one direction only till gluey.

4) Cut the dough into 2 and roll into logs. Cut into sections.

5) Turn cut side up and flatter with your palm. Using a rocking motion and flatten with rolling pin. The centre should be thicker than the edges, so using one hand, put pressure as your roll inwards towards the the centre but release pressure as you roll out. With the other hand, turn ⅛ round. Repeat till you have as round a circle as your like.

6) Fill with filling and crimp.

7) Add oil to a pan and arrange the gyoza, flat side down. The pan can be well filled. When the bottoms are browned, add water to ⅓ up the gyoza and immediately cover. They are cooked when most of the water has evaporated.

8) Serve with black vinegar and finely match-sticked ginger.

Japchae 잡채

I love this since I first tried it. The proper recipe is http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/japchae but this is my clear the pantry interpretation. Layered in a slow cooker inspired pen cai, it was all prep, chuck into pot, and pono slaving over a stove!

Ingredients

1 can young corn, drained

1 can straw mushroom, drain

1 handful black fungus, soaked then chopped

1 handful lilu bulbs, soaked

2 carrots, cut into matchstick

3 leaves cabbage, shredded

1 handful shitake mushrooms, soaked and reserve the soaking liquid

4 cups kombu stock

1 packet sweet potato noodles, soaked till soft

1 packet porkballs, quartered

1 packet hakka balls, quartered

1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted (optional)

Sauce

2 tbsp mirin

2 tbsp sake

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tbsp garlic, minced

1 tbsp sesame seed oil

1 tsp sugar

Method

1) Place the carrots, pork balls and hakka balls, and cabbage at the bottom of the pot.

2) Pour in the kombu, together with the sauce and garlic. Add the reserved shitake soaking liquid.

3) Place the noodles on stage top.

4) Top up with the corn, straw mushrooms, and black fungus.

5) Cover the lid and set to high for 10 minutes. Check after 5 so as to ensure the noodles are cooked but not mushy.

6) Toss everything to mix well. Garnish with sesame seeds if using. Serve immediately. 

Proscuitto and fruit cocktails

Inspired by this starter that I once had during a farewell lunch held for me by an ex-colleague, I decided to make this as a starter. I was served proscuitto with melon. Not a bad idea, combining the saltiness of the Italian ham with fruit, and really easy to make too. Other than the ham and fruit, what type of fruit is up to you. I used canned because I intended to transport it and didn't want liquid seeping from fresh fruit, but you can use fresh fruit too if serving at home. It's pretty flexible, you can skewer on hard cheese, vegetables, etc.

Ingredients

Ham/Italian proscuitto

Cocktail sausages

Canned fruit (I used lychees and pineapple)

Toothpicks

Cut to size e.g. I snipped the proscuito into smaller pieces, otherwise, the salt overwhelms the sweet. Taste testing is important here and a great excuse to eat!

Skewer away. Present prettily and serve.

Quick Sausage rolls and hamburger bread

Same 40 minute recipe as the last, but I decided to let it rest after incorporatiom for 30 minutes, and rise it again for 30 minutes after shaping. For some reason, the dough was a dream. I followed the instructions and used oil rather than flour for dusting.

I made 12 bread rolls: 6 hamburger buns and 6 sausage rolls.

The sausage roll recipe said 15 to 17 sausages but that must be the canned sausages. I used hotdogs or franks, and 12 would have been just nice. Note to roll out the coil to the length of a big cutting board, otherwise it's too short to coil around the sausage!

Again, pure egg was too brown after 11 minutes. I must remember to add a splash of milk amd bake for 10 minutes at 220 deg C next time.

Mini sausage rolls
http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/mini-sausage-bread-rolls.html

Cheese buns

From a 40 minute bun recipe http://thedomesticgoddesswannabe.com/2014/10/40-minute-cheese-buns/

Altho hers are all nice and individual, mine melded into each other. Maybe it's because she had minimum rise times but I was feeling generous so I let it rise as it should.

Ingredients (makes 12 buns)

3.5 cups flour

280 ml warm water

⅓ cup neutral tasting oil

2 tbsp yeast

¼ cup sugar

1.5 tsp salt

1 egg

1 egg for egg wash

1 cup cheese

Cheese for sprinkling (I ran out, hence the sesame seeds)

Method

1) In a big bowl, add flour, yeast, sugar. Mix then add salt. Be careful not to let the salt touch in direct contact with the yeast or it gets deactivated. The blogger proofs the yeast in the warm water but I didn't bother.

2) Create a well and pour in the oil, egg, and finally the warm water. Mix well with a wooden spoon. It will be very tacky. Beat till it leaves the bowl, about 5 minutes. Cover in cling wrap and leave to proof for 30 minutes.

3) Punch down and knead for 5 minutes. It should be smooth, shiny and leave the bowl. Add 1 tbsp of flour at a time if it's still too tacky.

4) Divide into 12 balls. Put half in the fridge or it starts to rise. To save washing, I used my oiled hands to pulled and tugged each ball into a disc. Leave the centre thicker than the sides. Spoon in 2 tbsp of cheese. Gather the edges and place seam side down into a prepared, well oiled muffin tin. When working on the second tin, place the first in the fridge, covered, so they all rise together.

5) Preheat the oven to 220 deg C. Let both tins rise, covered, on a counter top for 30 to 40 minutes.

6) Brush beaten egg wash and sprinkle on cheese or sesame seeds.

7) Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown, turning at the 7 minute mark.

8) Cool in tin before eating or the filling will be scaldingly hot.

Recipe feedback: 

1) I didn't like the muffin shape of the bun, probably because mine rose so much. The egg wash also made it too golden brown. This recipe looks promising, no need to roll out, and glaze with melted butter. Might try it next time. http://heatherchristo.com/cooks/2012/11/11/cheese-buns/

2) The bun is crusty when first baked, but if kept overnight in an airtight box but out of the fridge, it's soft and fluffy next morning. Next time I'll have a soft cheese inside and hard cheese on the outside which will char in the oven. Charred cheese tastes great but the cheese inside is no longer flowy, which kinda defeats the point of cheese to begin with.