Chinese paella

I'm a cooking programme junkie. Lately, I watched an old episode of Jamie Oliver in Oliver's Twist and watched him as he brought a Brazilian friend home and tried to prepare authentic Brazilian stew - with a Jamie twist, of course. In particular, 1 dish actually reminded me Chinese cooking. He started off with Brazilian sausages (which look surprisingly like lap cheong), fried them off, then poured in some spare ribs for browning and topping off with other liquids. I also watched a recent episode of Kelly Kwong and saw her fry fried rice, which I've not done for a long time simply because I've not had leftover rice for a long time ever since I discovered the microwave rice cooker. Last night, I watched an episode of Chef At Home and saw Michael Smith prepare something involving basmati rice.

Suddenly I felt inspired - I dusted off my old paella pan and this is that I did:

Ingredients

1 packet chicken balls (too lazy to go and debone chicken thigh and cut into cubes, and don't like using chicken breast because it's very dry)

1 carrot, diced

8 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in 1/2 cup of hot water

1 large onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 cup of rice, washed and drained

2 lap cheong, cut into circles

oil for frying

Method

1) Pour the oil into a heated paella pan. Fry off the lap cheong. Once the oil has started to melt and ooze out, add the onions and fry until soft. Add the carrots and fry briefly for about a minute.

2) Drain the mushrooms and slice up. Reserve the water from soaking the mushrooms.

3) Add the crushed garlic, rice and mushrooms to the pan, and briefly fry to incorporate.

4) Pour back the water used for soaking mushrooms, and add another 1 and 1/2 cups of water (ie total 1 cup rice = 2 cups water). Pat down ingredients without stirring the rice too much or the grains will break. Bring to boil.

5) Cover and leave on a slow simmer for about 20 mins until the water has been absorbed and the rice is cooked and fluffy.

6) Serve immediately in the paella pan.

Scones

Boss made some very nice fresh scones to surprise us one morning. Here's the recipe - looks super easy!

Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Ready in: 45 min

Ingredients (makes 8)
1 3/4 cups (220g) all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons (15g) baking powder
5 tablespoons (70g) unsalted butter
5 tablespoons (60g) white sugar
2/3 cup (160ml) whole milk
1/2 cup (70g) currants
1 egg yolk, beaten

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with baking parchment.
2) Sift flour and baking powder into a medium bowl. Rub butter and sugar into flour to form a fine crumble. Make a well in center, and add milk and currants. Knead gently together, being careful not to over mix. Dough will be sticky.
3) On a generously floured surface, roll out dough to 3/4 inch thickness. Stamp out 2 1/2 inch rounds with a plain pastry cutter. Transfer to prepared pan, and brush tops with egg yolk. Allow to stand for 15 minutes.
4) Bake in preheated oven until risen and lightly golden on top, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool.

Variation: My scones (see picture) were made by substituting the raisins with bits of apple (approx 1/2 a big apple) which resulted in increasing the cooking time by about 3 minutes.

Beef and sweet potato broth

In my new stew craze, I've been experimenting with different slow cooker recipes. Here's the one I tried today which altho didn't turn into a stew, became instead, a nice thick broth. Notice I use the word 'broth' rather than 'soup', because that's exactly what it is.

Ingredients

500g stewing beef, cubed

1/4 cup flour

1 tbsp 5 spice powder

1 tbsp dried basil or sage

1 large white onion, finely diced

1 carrot, cubed

1 sweet potato, cubed into smaller chunks (approx 1 inch cubes. This is impt so that they will actually start to 'melt' and provide the thickness to the broth)

2 handfuls barley

1.5l pork bone stock or chicken stock

2 tsbp rice wine (optional)

2 tbsp worchestershire sauce (optional)

1 handful soyabeans (I put this in a bag so that I could fish it out later as I don't really like eating beans but you can always leave it in)

Oil for frying

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1) To the flour, add the basil or sage, 5 spice powder and salt and pepper. Mix well. Coat the beef cubes evenly.

2) Add oil to a pan and brown the beef cubes taking care not to crowd the pan. Do a batch at a time until nicely browned on all sides. Remove and drain.

3) Add more oil to the pan and add in the onion, carrots and sweet potato. Briefly fry until onion softens.

4) Pour the vegetable mix into a slow cooker, together with the beef. Add the soyabeans, barley and stock. Pour in the remaining flour used to coat the beef.

5) Once the broth comes to a boil, skim off the foam and any floating oil. Leave to slow cook for at least 2 hours.

6) After 2 hours, pour in the rice wine and worchestershire sauce. It is ready to be served after another 10 minutes of simmering. At this point, check for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.

7) Leave it to simmer for up to 4 hours so that the beef becomes really tender, and the sweet potatoes and barley melt to produce a thicker gruel. It can also be cooled down and kept in the fridge after the initial 2 hours, and reheated the next day after skimming off the fat. This leaves time for the tastes to infuse overnight.

Fried calamari rings

Was watching a Korean food programme on squid. Learnt interesting facts: squid has more protein than beef. It is very low in fat. It is a rich source of taurine (anti-ageing) and selenium (anti-oxidant). Squid ink is also good and like black beans and black sesame seeds, is supposed to be good for the heart and asians believe it is good for the kidneys and liver.

Here's a simple recipe which is light and easily prepared.

Ingredients
Squid, prepared and cut into rings. The tentacles can either be whole or cut in half.
Milk
Egg
Flour seasoned with salt, pepper

Method
1) Prepare the squid. Soak in beaten egg with a splosh of milk.
2) Coat with the seasoned flour.
3) Deep fry until golden brown and crispy.
4) Serve with mayo or sweet chilli sauce.

Curry Pork-ettes in a Hurry

After my chicken nuggets, I liked the idea but found chicken breast too dry. I decided to give it a go with pork. The nice thing about pork is that it's slightly fatty, and even if you trim away the obvious fat, the grain of the meat itself still has little bits of fat which keep the meat moist. After cooking, even without oil, you'll see the oil and juices bubbling out and you'll know it's nice and moist inside.

With my trusty new bottle of 5-spice, I decided to try something new. I added curry powder for added kick but accidently ended up pouring half the bottle in. And hey, what did you know, it actually worked out better!

Ingredients (serves 2)

300g pork loin, cut up into nugget-sized chunks. Try to make them as evenly sized as possible so that the cooking time will be the same.

1 egg, beaten

2 tsp mustard

1 tsp salt

1 tsp 5 spice powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp tumeric

5 tbls curry powder

dash of pepper

crackers, crushed (approx 6 or 7 'soda' biscuits or you can use other types of crackers e.g. Ritz, Jacobs, etc)

Method

1) Pour the beaten egg into a shallow plate. Add the salt and mustard and stir well. Place the pork chunks in the egg and stir well. Leave to marinate for at least 10 mins

2) Put the crackers into a ziploc bag and crush using a rolling pin. Add all the rest of the dry ingredients and toss well.

3) Place pork chunk into the ziploc bag. Shake well to coat the pork properly.

4) Arrange on baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.

5) Bake at 200 deg C for 15 mins or until cooked (depending on the size of your pork nuggets)

6) For that added crunch, serve with deep fried curry leaves.

Nigella's Comforting Beef Cassarole

I'm such a fan of beef stews, because I've never ever been able to crack it. Not that I've been trying either, because I usually don't have the time to on weekends and neither do I own a slow cooker.

But here's another promising receipe, which I'm going to add to my list of "one day will try" recipes, and hopefully, that 'one day' will come, some day. Taken from her episode of 'Feasts' entitled 'Kitchen Comforts'.

Ingredients

½ cup Olive Oil
2lb Onions (Roughly Chopped)
1½lb Carrots (Cut On The Diagonal To Give Slanted Oval Slices)
½ cup Flour
Salt & Pepper (Freshly Ground)
1 tablespoon Dried Sage (Leaves)
2 teaspoons Ground Allspice
4½lb Stewing Or Chuck Steaks (Diced)
1 large Orange (Zested And Juiced)
2 cups Stout
2 cups Water
4 Bay Leaves

Method

1. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan or deep casserole, and fry the onions and carrots until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.
2. Remove the softened and oil-glossed vegetables to a bowl, and add the remaining oil to the pan. Put the flour into a large freezer bag along with salt and pepper, sage, and allspice; add the beef pieces to the bag, tossing in the flour, before searing the meat in the pan. Do this in batches, browning the meat a little and removing all of the beef to a large dish as you go.
3. When all the meat is browned and out of the pan, whisk or stir in the orange juice and stout and let it come to the boil. Add the water and then return the meat and vegetables to the pan. Stir in the orange zest and bay leaves, bring to the boil and then turn the stew down to a soft simmer. Cover and cook for 2 1/2 hours.
4. This is best reheated 1 or 2 days after, but if you are serving the stew on the same day, then add another half hour to the cooking time just to make sure the meat is soft, mellow and tender.

Recipe taken from Nigella Lawson's new cookbook FEAST.

Kim Chi Tang

The kim chi from my Korea trip has been hanging around my fridge for close to a month now. Altho I'm told it can last ages (ie months or even years), I'm not inclined to do so because I want to be able to buy new kim chi! Yes, the taste has kinda grown on me. From someone who detests kim chi, I actually found my own batch of kim chi surprisingly refreshing when eaten. Since kim chi is naturally sour (due to the naturally occuring lactobacilli as a result of the fermentation process), there is a salty-sweet tang at the end. Maybe it's just psychological since I made it myself.

Anyhow, my tour guide did mention that you can do lots with kim chi including kim chi fried rice or kim chi soup (which I also tried during the tour). Came across this simple recipe yesterday from a health magazine and thought I'd try it as well as slightly adapt it. This soup brings out the best in the kim chi - it's like Sichuan hot and sour soup, but the chicken stock dilutes the inherent tartness of the kim chi, so this works for people who don't like very sour things - give it a try!

Ingredients
400g kim chi
1l chicken stock (you can use stock cube, I used Maggi Chicken Stock)
8 fresh shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 box of silken toufu
1 thumb sized ginger, sliced thinly
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Soya sauce to taste (usually canned or ready chicken stock is already quite salty, so watch it!)
1 tbsp fish sauce

Method
1) Bring the chicken stock to a boil.
2) Add the kim chi, ginger, garlic and shitake mushrooms and let simmer for about 10-15 mins.
3) Add the soya sauce and fish sauce.
4) Add the toufu.
5) Serve with steamed rice.

Korean-style steamed salmon

Inspired by Korean cooking and Nigella, here's my take on Korean teriyaki-style fish. The same marinade can also be used for beef or chicken and bbq-ed.

Ingredients

2 fillets of salmon

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp dark soya sauce

1 tsp sherry/chinese rice wine/vodka

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsbp chilli powder

1 thumb-sized ginger, grated or slivered

Method

1) Mix up the marinade and marinate the fish for at least half an hour.

2) Steam fish for 10 mins until cooked, OR

3) Bake in tin foil for 15 mins at 180 deg C.

Kim Chi

Fresh from my Korea trip which includes a kim chi making session, here's how to make kim chi (to the best of my memory!)

Ingredients

1/2 Carrot, thinly sliced
1 tbsp Korean chilli flakes (normal chilli flakes will produce a bitter taste after fermentation, but Korean chilli flakes produces a sweetish flavour)
1/4 head of Cabbage
1 thumb sized ginger, grated
2 stalks green spring onion, finely chopped
ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic
1 big bowl of water (big enough to soak cabbage)
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
Plenty of Salt

Method

1) Leaving the stem of the cabbage intact, separate out each leaf of the cabbage by carefully peeling it off. As you do so, sprinkle each layer liberally with salt and rub it in.
2) Leave cabbage to soak in fresh water for at least 3 to 4 hours, the longer the better.
3) Hang upside down to air dry and set aside.
4) Prepare the 'sauce' by combining the carrot, green onion, garlic and ginger with the fish sauce, chilli flakes, sugar and 1 tsp of salt (not too much as the fish sauce is salty enough)
5) Spread out all the leaves and hold them in your left hand, largest leaf-side down. Peel off the largest leaf and spread it on the chopping board. Smear some of the sauce onto the leave, making sure to cover the entire leaf. Proceed on with the next largest leaf until you have finished all the leaves.
6) Fold in half and use the largest leaf to encircle the bundle. Set aside to ferment, putting in the fridge only overnight. It will be read to eat the next morning.

Cornflake-crusted Chicken Nuggets

Adapted from Micheal Smith's "Chef at Home"'s Cornflake-crusted Chicken Breasts and Nigella's Chicken Nuggets, this recipe helped me use up my leftover cornflakes.

Ingredients
2-3 cups cornflakes
2 chicken breasts, snipped into 8 nugget-sized pieces
1 cup yoghurt
salt and pepper for seasoning
1 tsp mustard

Method
1) Snip the chicken breasts into roughly 8 pieces using a kitchen scissors. Bash it flat using the back of a cleaver or rolling pin to ensure that the thickness of each nugget is roughly about the same. This will help in ensure that all the pieces are evenly cooked.

2) Marinade in the yoghurt, salt and pepper and mustard overnight.
3) Drain off excess yoghurt. In a bag, crush up the cornflakes using a rolling pin.
4) Drop in each nugget and ensure well coated.
5) On a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper, bake at 220 deg C for 10 mins or until golden brown.