Juk + Pajeon Invasion

Help! I think I need serious intervention this week by you people. This korean red pepper paste I´ve carted all the way back from KL had been invading our tiny kitchen for the past week! How boring can my life get - I mean, I am suppose to be a food blogger, right? Experimenting new style and new flavour is suppose to be what food bloggers do, right? But how come, I am simply so, so, soooo contented with this magical paste lying preciously inside our fridge? I care to explain. This sauce is anything but boring - (read) it is totally lipsmacking. I have been slapping a tablespoon or two into whatever I can get my hands on while cooking. The taste of this Korean Red Pepper Paste can get very deep (depends how much you slap onto your dish) and comes with tint of spiciness. Knowing me, spicy is my middle name! I have done it all with the sauce. From mild to generous dosage of this wonder paste into fried rice, porridge, noodles, meat, vegetables and fish even. Trust me, it surely does liven up the dish especially when paired with good old spring onion sprinkle and sesame seed which korean dishes are so famous for.

Here´s two korean dishes I have been eating frequently for the past week. While the Juk (rice porridge) showned here clearly were cooked without the red paste that I have been so go-go-ga-ga over, I had them with Pajeon - which is a famous Korean Onion Pancake which one can find in every nook and corner of Korea (at least that was what I read). But on lazy days when all I needed was do some blogging, while the pot of Juk is simmering away in the kitchen and don´t have the mood to further heat up the pan for accopanying dish, I would no doubt flavour my Juk with the magic paste :-)

Here´s the Juk recipe

1. Wash 1/2 cup of chinese rice in a pot of water until you get rid of all the murky colour water. Than fill up the pot with 1 litre of water. Let it boil for roughly 10 minutes under low heat or until the water is almost dried up. At this stage, add another litre of water.
2. Add chopped carrots (from 1/2 carrots) and chopped spring onion (from 3-4 stalks). Season with vegetable seasoning (about 1 tablespoon), a bit of salt and pepper to taste.
3. Let it cook further for another 10 minutes. Check if the Juk looked a bit mashed up, instead of still grainy. If it still does, add more water and let it slow boil further until the grain breaks up.
4. Before serving, drizzle over some sesame oil and sesame seeds.

Here´s the Panjeon recipe

1. Mix together flour (1 cup), water (1 cup), red pepper paste (2 tablespoon, mix them well with a tablespoon of hot water), egg (1 egg, lightly beaten) bit by bit, making sure to beat out any lumps – this should be only a tiny bit thicker than thin pancake batter as you will still need the mixture to spread out on the frying pan, so add more water or flour accordingly.
2. Add the chopped spring onions (1 large bunch and chopped up to 2 inch length), then mix thoroughly to incorporate all ingredients evenly.
3. Heat a frying pan and add some oil, when it’s nice and hot, ladle a big spoonful into the pan. You want this to be about 4-5mm thick, any thicker and it won’t cook through well. Fry until the batter is half-cooked on top and the bottom is nice and crisp and golden.
4. Carefully flip over and fry other side till golden, then remove from heat and drain on paper towels. Oil frying pan and repeat with remaining batter. Done.

Grilled Wild Salmon with Green Curry Spinach Sauce

Some fusion combination works magically, while some confuse the hell out of your tastebud. Thankfully this wonderful recipe from Closet Cooking worked magically like my Thomas Sabo charm - even on a dark, greyish, depressing, never ending rainy day.

Urggg ... Rain, rain, go away ... come again another day!

Speaking of rain, is it raining hard at your part of the world? It surely is here. And without much warning too. Just yesterday while at the library picking up some delicious looking German Cooking and Torte Bake book, I almost got myself drenched. Well, I said almost because I was lucky enough to step out from the library door few minutes late. I had eariler witness the oncoming of grey clouds through the surrounding windows, and figured that I better get my butt out quickly for 1) I was definately not dressed for rain 2) nor was I carrying an umbrella with me 3) I came with my trusted bicycle 4) I had lots of books with me! The moment I step out and about to reach out for the padlock of my bicycle, it came rushing down mercilessly while I witness a poor mother and daughter scrambled to their feet to get shelter right across me. I spent the next half hour scrolling the coffee table book I´d just borrowed right outside the library and what a good way to past time really. Within minutes, the rain miracalously stopped and the sun came out :-)

I took a long route back home bypassing the shopping streets and cafes after much contemplatation. The other route is much closer, but it is a bare street with nothing but trees. I figured that the long route would serve me better just in case if it pours again and I would have shelter to run too! It did not pour as anticipated but I did not regret taking up the long route at all. The one thing I notice while passing by the main strasse is, everyone was spotting a jolly good mood with a big grin on their face! The cafes were suddenly packed to the brim - even the secluded one, hidden in one corner. I gathered that it must be the sun, and the smell of fresh rain that came pouring earlier. Upon reaching home, I could not help noticing that our garden bloom looking so bright and cheery - just like what I´d witness in the street earlier and quickly retrieve this two wonderful bloom from my flower archive to be posted along this dish here. Don´t you think they look so good side by side?

The first thing I did after unpacking my books was hit the kitchen. I was starving from all the book carrying (I borrowed 10!), the cycling-walking-cycling combo and two toast breakfast. I felt like I could eat a horse and needed some heat after the downpour too.

Here´s the recipe (which I´d modified a little)

• 1 piece of 150 grams Wild Salmon
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 cups of Spinach
• 1 potato, skin peeled and sliced thinly
• 1 teaspoon Green Curry paste
• 1/2 water
• 3 tablespoon coconut milk
• 3 tablespoon yellow curry powder
• Salt and Pepper for taste
• Oil

Method

1. Grill the Wild Salmon in a non-stick wok for about 3-4 minutes each side. Cover them with a wok cover if needed.
2. Next, pour a little oil into the pan and place in the onions and potatoes. Let it cook for two minutes, or until a bit golden.
3. In goes the spinach and the rest of the ingredients. Mix them well. Let it simmer until it thickens.
4. Dish out the Green Curry Spinach on a platter, and than the Wild Salmon served on top. Done.

Italian Potato Croquette

Hub was kinda surprise when I asked him to pick up a packet of potatoes last weekend from the grocery store. I had in the past told him that I am banning potato from my diet after experiencing weight gain right after a potato dinner! I do love potatoes, in many ways. I grew up eating lots of fries during Mcdonalds take out (perhaps it is the reason why I was so round). I also love them stewed in chinese dishes and curries or having them baked, in soups and whatever method you can think of. To me, you will not go wrong with a potato in any dish because it absorbs every flavour you cook them with, or even good on its own.

This dish was inspired by David Rocco´s Dolce Vita. Do you still remember him? He is the grinny canadian guy whom leaved for Italy with his cute wife to shot this wonderful, cool cooking program while touring around the country. Watching the program really does make me wanna take the first train connection to the South, really ... and bask in the mediterranean sun, sea and all. Back to his program, he made this wonderful italian style croquette which looked so tempting that I just had to put aside my i-do-not-touch-potato-attitute.

And I had no regrets at all for it turned out really, really yummy ... nothing like the ones we get from frozen department or other homemade ones I´d tried. I think the parmesan cheese and parsley were really a wonderful touch to this simple croquette and I do urge you to try! The other thing that really stood out was how fresh the potato taste were and its because I was fortunate to have a pack of the 1st german potato harvest for this year with us. The only thing I find difficult was frying them. I did not want to use so much oil frying them and than having to figure what to do with the reused oil - hence only pouring a cup in the wok to get it sizzling. And naturally, there were some hit and miss part, some parts browned and some parts still light .. but I figured, this is how a homemade potato croquette should look like!

So, here´s the recipe

• 6 large potatoes, peeled, slice to small pieces and cooked them in a pot of water for 20 minutes (or until it is fully cooked)
• When its fully cooked, set aside to cool.
• Mash the potatoes to almost fine texture, leaving a tiny winy bit of pieces and place in salt and pepper to taste, a handful of italian parsley, parmesan cheese shaves and an egg to bind them all together. Mix the mixture with your hand.
• Divide them into portions you desire and shape them into the oblong shape as shown. If you like them sinful, you can even slide in the middle a slice of mozarella before closing the croquette together. This is the original recipe, but since I did not have mozarella at hand, I had to skip this out.
• At this time, bring your wok out and heat them up with oil. Prepare your kitchen towels for draining.
• Drop them croquette into egg yolk mixture and coat them thoroughly with breadcrumbs. Shape the croquette one more time if needed as it tends to get out of shape quickly.
• In goes the croquette for frying, roughly about 2 minutes each side or until it is golden in colour. Done.

Serve them while its hot. While my hub love to eat them as it is, I simply love them with a kick from Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce! Yum!

Baked Camembert with Rasberry Sauce

Sometimes I cheat. But it is with no regret that store bought Baked Camembert taste as good as the real thing served in restaurants. The only thing scary about it is the colour of the crust, which sort of make you question how much food colouring goes into them. But to compensate for the inadequency on my part - making the baked camembert part I mean and it is by any mean not easy at all of which both occassion had been watching in horror how the cheese started leaking out from its mold to the hot oil around it - I made a really good rasberry sauce to go with it and it simple the easiest thing to do to spring up your baked cheese platter. The saltiness of the cheese and the sweet tanginess of the rasberries married well of course, and end of the day, my belly could not thank me enough.

No recipe for this post because there really isn´t any, really but for the heck of keeping my blog alive, and trust me ... I have been slacking a lot (no inspiration, inadequate natural light etc) ... I wanna wish you guys a happy weekend :-)

Cilio Cocktail Shaker and Pitü Muddler

The old shaker finally rest in peace from all the shaking, so time to get a new one :-) We wanted something solid that can last for years, perform the job and importantly does not come with hefty price tag (this cost us 18Euro) and yet, does not compromise on quality. And we found it at Cilio. They have really nice stuff there, do check it out! In addition, we grabbed a muddler from a brand called Pitu and couldn´t be more please. With this tool, I can now make a mean mojito with the abundance of mint from Mama´s garden!

Pad Kaprao Challenge for Jules

I wanted to blog a normal blog for this entry, but thought of a dear friend whom had just relocated. He is none other than Jules but I presume he will have to change the blog title soon (or have you created a new Abu Dhabi blog - Jules???). Like me, he is a Malaysian, born and breed there and loved Malaysian and South East Asian cuisine. Whenever I read a post of him travelling to Thailand, this Pad Kaprao dish seems to be the default dish he orders and I assume it is one of his favourite? Anyway, I would like to post him a challenge. A challenge for him to get cooking in the kitchen as I have never come across him cooking (only eating) and hey, as a foodie - that is so not happening man.

Easy Peasy Recipe and Method (for 2 person)

1. Heat the wok until the surface is smoking hot. In goes 2-3 tablespoon oil.
2. Put in chopped garlic (2 cloves), chopped onion (1/2) and dried chillies (soaked, drained and chopped to small pieces). You need about 2-3 large ones, pending how spicy you can take and stir a while till fragrant (about 2 - 3 minutes)
3. Next, toss in the minced pork meat (about 200 grams) together with Dark Soya Sauce (1 tablespoon), Soya Sauce (1 tablespoon), Fish Sauce (2 tablespoon) and a bit of water (1/3 cup). Stir them well or until the minced pork is thoroughly cooked.
4. Lastly, toss in a large handful of Basil Leave to fragrant up the dish and season them with pepper for taste.
5. Transfer to a serving dish when the Basil Leave are wilted nicely, or spoon directly over individual plates of plain steamed rice.

Good luck Jules! *grin*

Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream Result

So, did it happen? Noooooo ... it did not.

It is either I´d spoilt Mama´s ice cream machine - of which I will try and make another batch of ice cream this week to test it out again, OR this recipe is such that you simply cannot substitute condensed milk with cream. Anyhow, I froze the coffee mixture overnight after two failed attempt. It was hard as a rock the next day alright but not wanting to waste it, I moved them to normal cooling department and waited a good 2 hours to try the texture again. And you know what? It turned out marvelous! The Vietnamese Ice Cream was really, really good and I can say that it is THE most kicking I have ever tasted! What is not, when I had in it quite a fair sum of expresso + Nescafe powder in it eh.

So, if you´re feeling adventurous ... you can try this `without ice cream machine`recipe out while I improvise them further.



Recipe and Method

• Boil 1 cup of Expresso and mix them with 1 1/2 tablespoon of Nescafe Classic
• Mix in 3 tablespoon of white sugar (of adjust according to taste)
• Bring 500 ml of cream to a boil in a pan, and pour the Coffee Mixture in. Mix well.
• Let it cool for 1/2 hour before placing them in the freezer.
• Move them to cooling department 2 hours before serving. Done.

As you can see, it is not very difficult to make but do feedback to me if you find the texture too hard, too soft.

Lemon Gelato

David Lebovitz´s Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream in the Making

The consistency is not there yet, and I made a huge mistake by pouring the hot-from-the-stove Coffee Mixture into Mama´s machine first trial. I also substituted the recipe from Condensed Milk to Cream. It is second trial now, using the same mixture and reworking them in the ice cream machine. I hope it works!

Poached Eggs and Organic Spinach on Rye

First time poaching eggs and it was not as difficult as I thought it would be. Now, you have probably come across thousand and one method to poached these babies, but really ... take the safe way if I were you - means break the egg into a cling wrap foil, secure them properly so that nothing flows out and drop them gently into a pot of boiling water. Let it cook there for about a minute and watch how the translucent egg colour changes to white. And now, depending how runny you like your yellow, of which I like mine runny with a bit of solidness at the side, I let it cook further for another 20 seconds or so. On this particular morning, I wanted to enjoy them on a bed of green vegetables and recall that Mama had placed two bags of spinach which she harvested for us when we were off for holiday in our fridge. A quick swirl on the same boiling water and its ready to be assembled on top of Rye slice. But of course, drain out the water first and season them with some salt and pepper for taste. To LUX it up, theres no harm drizzling some truffle oil over eh. Yummy breakfast :-)