sil's Chicken Lasagna

Taking a break from Korean food.

Master Prince enjoys watching the movie with Garfield the cat, that is where he learnt all about lasagna. Needless to say, this became one of his favourite food.

Normally use beef but since my parents don't eat beef anymore, next alternative is chicken. Compared to beef, I find using chicken meat is quicker to prepare as you do not need to cooking the ragu (aka sauce) for a long time.

Ingredients
250g lasagna sheets
2 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 can mushrooms, sliced
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp basil herbs
1 tsp oregano herbs
1 tsp mint herbs
2-3 pieces bay leaves
400g can purèed tomatoes
450g minced chicken
Parmesan cheese for topping

For white cheesy sauce:
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp plain flour
375ml chicken stock
1/4 cup milk
pinch nutmeg
125g grated cheddar/mozzarella cheese


Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C. Grease rectangular baking dish.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and gently fry onion until transparent. Add chicken and fry. Then add garlic and carrots, followed by mushrooms and herbs. Cook until mushrooms are brown. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add zuchinni and simmer for a further 20 minutes.

3. In a saucepan, melt extra butter over low heat and gently stir in flour. Increase heat, stir in stock and mix until smooth. Stir in nutmeg and cheese until cheese is melted and mixture thick. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Pour ½ cup of chicken sauce into baking dish. Cover with a layer of lasagna sheets. Pour 1/3 of remaining sauce over the lasagna sheets, followed by 1/3 of the cheese sauce.

5. Repeat with lasagna, chicken and cheese sauce until lasagna is used up, finishing with the cheese sauce (make sure all lasagna is covered). Sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese. Bake 30 - 35 minutes until the cheese is all golden brown.


6. Let stand for 5 - 10 minutes and serve.

They freeze well too so normally I make more so Master Prince can have his lasagna fix with his sadist Garfield chum!

Potato banchan (Gamja jorim)

DH commented that it tastes like those from the Korean BBQ restaurant, so I'd guess this dish is a 'success'!! :)

A simple recipe shared by maangchi

Ingredients
3 medium sized potatoes, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 - 2.5 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp corn syrup
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup water
sesame oil
roasted sesame seeds

Method:

1. Rinse cut potato in running water to remove starch.

2. Heat frying pan with 1-2 tbsp olive oil and add potato.

3. Add garlic and sauté it until the potato look a little translucent, then add the onion and keep stirring it.

4. Add water, soya sauce, sugar and corn syrup. Simmer over medium heat for about 10 min until liquid is evaporated. Add more water if required.

5. When potato is cooked, turn off fire. Add 1 tbsp of sesame oil and sprinkle a pinch of sesame seeds before serving.

Perilla Kimchi (Kkaennip kimchi)

If you like or don't mind the unique taste of perilla (sesame leaves), give this easy kimchi a try. Surprisingly it is quite addictive and spicy (think I was slightly heavy handed with the red pepper flakes me thinks!!); eaten with plain rice!!

Aother recipe by maangchi.

Ingredients
Perilla leaves (135 grams: about 3 cups)
3 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 medium onion, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 stalks of green onion, sliced to 1/2 inch length
2 tbsp carrots, julienned
1 tsp honey (can't really taste it or can substitute with castor sugar)
1-2 tbsp hot pepper flakes
roasted sesame seeds

Method:

1. Wash and drain perilla leaves and put them into a basket. TIP: wash both sides of each leaf in running cold water and shake to drain water.

2. For the kimchi paste - put rest of ingredients into a bowl and mix. Taste, add a little caster sugar if required. It can be quite spicy so put 1 tbsp and taste first.

3. Spread some kimchi paste between the leaves and store in container. TIP tuck in the stems down so that it will soak up some of the kimchi mixture paste.

4. Leave out on kitchen counter for 1/2 day before storing in the refrigerator. Consume after 2 days of refrigeration.

5. Serve with rice and sprinkle some roasted sesame seeds before serving.

posting this picture is making me crave for more, can't wait to have another mouthful!

Also added this vegetable to the kimchi mix. Any idea what is it called in English? It is not spring onion, a kind of local leek perhaps?? The veggie seller told me in Cantonese but by the time I came home, forgot oredi.

Perilla

You might have seen these similar large maple like green sesame leaves before; normally used as garnish on your sashimi platter. In Japanese, they are called sisho.

Koreans also use them, though as I understand, they are from the same vegetable family but different varieties. They called them deulkkae. Koreans love to wrap their food especially grilled meat in them.

They are sold in the Korean mini mart for about RM4 a packet containing about 20 or so leaves. Wonder if they are grown locally or imported?

Say 'aaaaah....' :)

It is slightly bitter with a mild minty finish. Better with grillled meat (compared to salmon) because of the unique flavour.

Some Korean cooking condiments

If you've been reading my recent posts, you may have noticed my keen interest in Korean cooking.

If you like Korean food and want to try cooking at home, its best to use Korean condiments and cooking sauces. You can try substituting with Chinese sesame or Vietnamese fish sauce but it will not taste the same.

I've also noticed that the Korean min-marts (that is where I usually shop for my Korean foodstuff) usually have the fresher herbs like mint leaves, spring onion and coriander. The quality of vegetables such as zucchini and cucumber are actually better (straighter and less seeds inside, do I sound picky??) compared to the ones you could get at bigger supermarkets or even local wet markets, surprise, surprise huh?

Not understanding Korean language and the store keeper's English not fluent (except where it matters most - at the cashier, hehe), found it rather challenging to identify the sauces.

With that in mind, thought this would be a good post to share and hopefully you will be more informed in your next browse and visit at the Korean mini-mart. :)

On the RHS - Corn syrup.
On the LHS - two brands of Cooking rice wine.

Korean fish sauce, two types. Was told that the blue one is usually used to make kimchi as it is less pungent/strong compared to the red cap one.
Its true, having bought both of them.

RHS - Sesame oil (the backbone of Korean cooking).
LHS - Soya sauce.

RHS - Vinegar drink (to promote health). Similar to apple cider. Flavours available are blueberry and pomegranate. Personally prefer the pomegranate one.
LHS - Apple flavour cooking vinegar. If things are not confusing enough, they also have plum and lemon flavoured ones.

RHS - Soya sauce for cooking soup. It is less salty compared to normal soya sauce.
LHS - Normal soya sauce.

Kimchi - what you should always have, stashed in the darkest corner of your fridge! :)

From the top LHS - Korean coarse sea salt, instant anchovy granules and local dried anchovies.
The coarse salt is usually used for making kimchi. The dried anchovies are used for boiling soup/stock.

From the top LHS - gochujang (hot peper paste), doenjang (soya bean paste), gochugaru (red pepper flakes), roasted sesame seeds (white or black).

From LHS - dangmyeon (glass noodles made from sweet potato starch) wheat noodles and instant noodles.

From LHS - Korean fish cake and rice cakes.

Ingredients to make kimbap or Korean sushi roll.
From top LHS - crab stick, Korean ham, yellow pickled radish, seaweed for sushi, roasted seaweed and instant pre-mix aburrage to make yubuchobap or inari sushi.

Vacuum sealed instant rice (hatban) - comes in a few flavours, normal white rice, sprouted brown rice and black rice! Just warm up in microwave for about 2 mins.

Disclaimer - NOT my fridge.

Top shelf - soju. For a colourless distilled liquor, do not underestimate it as it is quite 'hard' with a sharp after taste. I get totally giddy by the 3rd shot glass!! Korea's equivalent to vodka (not my favourite drink) but goes well with grilled meat.

Bottom shelf - makoli or rice wine. Tried but perhaps I didn't get the right brand, personally do not like it that much.

Inari sushi (Yubuchobap)

Inari sushi is one my favourites. Just love the light sweet tofu pouches filled with rice.

Made this using a pre-mix kit found at the Korean mini mart. The kit contains of seasoned fried tofu pouches, vinegar based sauce packet and some dried rice condiment mix (carrot, black sesame, egg and seaweed). With the kit, it was pretty easy to make this, all you need is to cook some rice, mix in the vinegar and dried ingredients and stuff them into the tofu pouches.

Decided to add more flavour into the filling by adding some chopped spring onions, coriander, yellow pickled radish and roasted sesame seeds.

The radish added a nice crunch to the yubuchobap and the herbs added a refreshing favour.

Mix it all up - doesn't it look good? Other alternative fillings could include tuna, cucumber and carrot.

Stuff the rice filling into the tofu pouches. Remember you need to gently squeeze out the liquid from the tofu pouches before using them.


TIP - keep your hands slightly dam while making this to 'tame the rice' from sticking everywhere.

If you want more ideas, mosey over @ Maangchi.

Instead of commercial pre-mix packet, you might want to make your own. You will need to season them first before using. Below is Bentopet's recipe :

10 pcs aburaage
2 cups dashi
4 tbsp shoyu
5 tbsp sugar
8 tbsp mirin

Method:

1. Remove oil from aburaage by rinsing in hot water.

2. Add all ingredients into a pot, cover with a drop-lid or cover with aluminium foil and simmer until liquid is almost dry.

3. Squeeze dry the aburaage so that all the remainder liquids are removed.

3. Cut the aburaage into half and gently open it up so that you can stuff the sushi rice into it. Keep seasoned aburaage in refrigerator up to 10 days.

Spicy Rice Cake (Tteokbokki)

If you are a K-drama follower, this is one Korean snack you just need to try. The closest taste I can think of is our local chee cheong fun, but instead of rolled rice noodles with sweet brown sauce and with fried shallots, our Korean counter part have theirs with a fiery red spicy sweet sauce.

Needless to say, its fun to eat, especially more sharing them with friends as it can be rather filling.

Adapted recipe from aeriskitchen.

Ingredients
2 cups (15) rice cake sticks
2 pieces fried fish cakes
1 cup cabbage
1 small onion
1 small carrot
1 spring onion

Anchovy stock:
2½ cups water
6 pieces kelp (1×2 Inch)
1 dried anchovy pack (Optional)

Sauce Ingredients:
3 tbsp red pepper paste
1 tbsp red pepper powder
2 tbsp corn syrup
½ tbsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
½ tbsp minced garlic
Some sesame seeds for garnish

Method:

1. Slice ½ cup worth of an onion into quarter inch pieces. Cut ½ cup worth of a carrot diagonally. Cut 1 green onion into ½-inch pieces. Cut ⅔ cup worth of cabbage into quarter inch pieces.

2. To make the broth, boil 2½ cups of water, 6 pieces of kelp, 2 pieces of fish cake, and 1 dried anchovy pack together for about 10 minutes. The dried anchovy pack is optional.

3. Remove the kelp, fish cakes, and anchovy pack from the broth. Keep the fish cakes for later and discard the kelp and anchovy pack.

4. Cut the cooked fish cakes and the sticky rice cakes into 2 inch pieces.

5. In the broth, add 3 Tbsp of red pepper paste, 1 Tbsp of red pepper powder, 2 Tbsp of corn syrup, ½ Tbsp of sugar, 1 Tbsp of soy sauce, and ½ Tbsp of minced garlic. Depending on your taste, you can make your tteokbokki sweeter or spicier by changing the amount of sugar or red pepper paste. If you can’t eat too spicy food, skip the red pepper powder. You can use sugar instead of corn syrup. Cook it for 5 minutes on medium-high.

6. Add the rice cakes, carrot, onion, and cabbage into the broth.

7. Cook it for about 5 minutes until the rice cakes become soft on medium-high.

8. Add the fish cakes and cook for 1 more minute.

9. Add sliced spring oinion cook for another minute, and then turn off the heat.

10. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top of TteokBokKi to serve.

Kimchi Fried Rice with leftovers

Kimchi fried rice with bacon.


This dish is super easy and super quick to make, ready to eat in less than 10 min. Needless to say, its the kimchi that plays the backbone to this yummy rice.

All you need are some simple ingredients (feel free to add any other leftovers you may have in the refrigerator, such as carrots, zuchinni, egg, tuna etc.). As you can tell, I didn't have very much in my fridge!

Ingredients
old kimchi
cooked rice (leftovers are the best)
bacon or any leftover meat
sesame oil (to drizzle)

Method:

1. Fry kimchi with a little oil for about 3-5 min.

2. Add rice, some kimchi juice and meat, cook for another 3-5 min until all the food is heated through and well mixed.

3. Turn off heat, drizzle some sesame oil.

4. Serve warm with a sprinkling of chopped spring onion as garnish.

Kimchi fried rice with leftover meatloaf.


Kimchi fried rice with leftover roast chicken.

Kimbap (Korean sushi)

After talking about it with my family for weeks, I finally made them!! So easy that I made it twice in a row, for lunch and then for dinner. Best to make 10 rolls as that is how many sheets of seaweed there are in a pack.

There is no hard or fast rules with making sushi, you can use any filling you like. The classic popular ones are crabstick, cucumber, yellow pickle radish, carrot and avocado. Others include fried omelet, tuna, cooked beef and spinach. For this kimbap I used Korean pre-cooked ham, spring onion and a few sprigs of coriander - the combination was very refreshing.

Have you wondered what is the difference between the Japanese and Korean sushi? For the latter, they add roasted sesame into the rice and also rub sesame oil on the seaweed skin of the completed sushi roll. Being more accustom to Japanese sushi I have often wondered why they do that. Am told that it gives a nicer gloss to the sushi with added flavour of sesame oil. As you can probably guess by now, Koreans love their sesame oil!

Unfortunately, Master Prince is not keen on sesame oil nor is he a fan of sesame seed. So I had to make separate ones for him. Made his first then added the sesame seed into the rice and rolled up the rest.


Ingredients
Dried seaweed sheets
Crabsticks, sliced
Korean pre-cooked ham, sliced
Cucumber (sliced lengthwise, soaked in some sea salt for about 5 min and then rinsed)
Fried omelet, sliced
Yellow pickled radish, sliced
Spring onion and a few sprigs of coriander
Some sesame oil for rubbing

Sushi rice
3 cups calrose rice
3 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp scant salt
1 tbsp sesame oil (optional)

In a bowl mix mirin, sugar and salt. Microwave for about 20 seconds or until sugar and salt has melted into the mixture. When rice is cooked, stir in mirin mixture quickly and set aside warm sushi rice for about 10 min. Used my thermal pot cooker for this and it worked well especially keeping the rice nice and warm. When ready to assemble sushi, mix in some sesame seeds and 1 tbsp sesame oil (optional).

To assemble:

1. Place bamboo mat flat on table with a piece of seaweed (shiny side facing down).

2. Scoop 3-5 tbsp of rice and spread out evenly in the middle of seaweed, about 4 inches, leaving the top and bottom of the seaweed at least 1-2 inches free of rice.

3. Place desired fillings in the centre (but not too many - remember that less is more), gently roll up sushi, from the bottom up. Once you have a completed roll, give the roll (still in bamboo mat) a few firm but gentle squeeze to make sure the kimbap filling is secure.

4. Repeat until all the seaweed or fillings are used up. When all the seaweed rolls are completed into logs, put a little bit of sesame oil on your palm and rub the surface of the seaweed logs. [TIP: use disposable gloves or a clean plastic bag - you'll thank me for it! :) ]

5. Slice them into bite size, about 0.5 inch in thickness. [TIP: always keep your knife slightly dam for a cleaner cut. Alternatively oil your knife with a little sesame oil. This is to keep the rice from sticking to your knife while slicing up.] Keep covered until ready to serve. Best eaten the same day, otherwise keep in fridge and warm up in microwave the next day.

Spicy Kimchi Stew (Kimchijigae)

One of the first dish that comes to mind when someone says let's have Korean (other than grilled meat) - it'll be this yummy dish, erm soup.

Unfortunately in my family, I seem to be the only one who likes this dish. Unlike Korean men, the ones I know do not like the taste of fermented sour spicy cabbage aka. Kimchi.

So this dish is more for me - not complaining as that means more for me since I don't have to share - totally satisfying especially on a cool rainy or cold day.

Adapted recipe from beyondkimchee's blog

Ingredients
1/4 head of fermented cabbage kimchi (about 1 lb), stuffing removed and sliced
2 1/2 cup anchovy stock* or water
1/3lb pork belly or pork butt diced
8oz firm tofu, sliced
1/2 large onion, sliced
1 garlic, chopped
2 tsp Korean soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine, divided
1/2 cup Kimchi juice
1 tbsp Korean chili flakes
6-8 rice cake slices (optional)

*Anchovy stock:
5-6 large dried anchovies
3 dried sea kelp squares
3 cups water

Method:

1. In a bowl toss pork slices with soya sauce, 1 tbsp rice wine and garlic. Set aside.

2. In another small bowl, combine Korean chili flakes with 2 tbsp of kimchi juice and 1 tbsp rice wine and set aside.

3. In a shallow pot, spread onion on the bottom, layer kimchi slices, the pork, and the tofu slices on top. You can add rice cakes if you want to. Drizzle the Korean chili flakes mixture over. Pour the rest of kimchi juice and the stock (or water) over everything.

4. Cover and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 25-30 minutes, covered, until the cabbage gets soft and tender. Garnish with green onion if you wish. Serve hot with rice.

For the anchovy stock:
5. Soak kelp in water for at least 30 min.

6. Fry anchovies in a little oil for 5min until slightly crispy.

7. Bring anchovies, kelp, and water to boil. Before water starts boiling, remove kelp, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. If you let it rest for a few minutes the stock will have better flavor. Strain the stock and discard anchovies.

Sloppy Joes

Not your recipe if you like things to be neat and clean.

As with the name, 'sloppy' this dish is just all that. It is almost like a burger just that they are not shaped into a burger patty. With the 'free flowing' sauce, you really need both hands to eat this. Forget the cutleries. Tuck a bib under your chin and grab the bun with both your hands - chomp, slurp away. This is one food that once you start you need to press ahead full steam and finish it otherwise everything may just end up on the plate itself! *be warned but its all good fun*

This is another classic recipe by elsie

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup minced carrots (can sub chopped bell pepper)
1 cup chopped onion (about 1 medium onion)
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt
1 1/4 lb ground beef
1/2 cup ketchup
2 cups tomato sauce (or 1 15-ounce can whole tomatoes, puréed)

1 can red kidney beans
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
pinch ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
pinch cayenne pepper
freshly ground black pepper
4 hamburger buns

Method:

1. Heat olive oil and saute carrots for 5 min. Add the chopped onion and celery. Cook until onions are translucent, about 5 more minutes.

2. Add the minced garlic and cook for 30 more seconds and set aside.

3. Using the same pan, generously salt the bottom of the pan (about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon). Heat the pan on high. Crumble the ground beef into the pan. You will likely need to do this in two batches, otherwise you will crowd the pan and the beef won't easily brown. Do not stir the ground beef, just let it cook until it is well browned on one side. Then flip the pieces over and brown the second side. Use a slotted spoon to remove the ground beef from the pan (can add to the set-aside vegetables), salt the pan again and repeat with the rest of the ground beef. If you are using extra lean beef, you will likely not have any excess fat in the pan. If you are using 16% or higher, you may have excess fat. Strain off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat.

4. Return the cooked ground beef and vegetables including the red kidney beans to the pan. Add the ketchup, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar and brown sugar to the pan. Stir to mix well. Add ground cloves, thyme, and cayenne pepper.

5. Lower the heat to medium low and let simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste.

6. Serve with toasted hamburger buns.

With the leftover joes, here are some variations using wholemeal pita bread:

a thin crust sloppy joe!

pita sloppy joe with mango salsa! This was just so refreshing and sweet - yummy indeed.

Thermomix - do u own one?

picture source

Noticed that most of my overseas friends have one on their kitchen counter.

This sleek stainless steel gadget has the ability to chop, beat, mix, whip, grind, knead, mince, grate, juice, blend, heat, stir, steam and weigh food.

My friends find it very useful in terms of saving time to cook thus avoid 'slaving' away in the kitchen. A friend of mine also managed to cook a whole soya chicken inside the machine. Can also cook rendang, jam, melt chocolate, steam fish, etc. etc.

Having heard and seen what it can do, if you own one, think you don't even need a stove!!

BUT the downside, yes there is one....the price. Cost RM5200 or AUD1993! Yep, all my friends told me that the had to think deeply a few times before investing in one but they have not looked back since.

Read here if you want to know more. Ps. they are sold by consultants through cooking demos.

With the long standing maid issues around, perhaps this could be a cooking solution - too bad it can't wash up, scrub bathrooms nor iron clothes!! *bad joke* :p

thermomix bloggers

Homemade Kaya (Coconut Jam) & rant

A special note to my husband.

....it isn't even Mother's Day, our Anniversary or even my birthday, just an ordinary sleepy Sunday. So why, I keep wondering W-H-Y did you have to start the day by burning my expansive ecogreen pot?

Even though I admire your excitement of wanting to taste your favourite childhood food and the pure tenacity at your wanting to cook this by yourself (having declined my earlier offer to just get some from the shops), H-O-W did you ruin my precious pot?

Similar to your cars, tv, stereo and player - my pots and pans are my 'precious kitchen babies'! How could you even injure any of them??

...after one full tray of eggs, 1 kg of sugar, 1 burnt pot, an entire morning of stressful 'oh-shit' scrubbing and cleaning up the messed up kitchen - so I felt a tad bad for you especially since you've been dreaming and planning on tasting your childhood kaya for weeks.

Needless to say, you owe big-time.

Make it up quick by replacing another ecogreen pot!

*** **** ****

Used the 'jam' function of a breadmaker to make this. Have made this a couple of times before and its turned out well, can't compare to charcoal cooked ones, but still pretty decent.

You can cook it over the stove (double boil method) but that means that you will need to stick close the stove and stir until you get a nice thick chunky consistency (probably about 1.5 - 2 hours). Being a 'modern' cook, find it so much more convenient to cook this with a 'jam' function machine (or even a thermomix).

Ingredients (1:1:1 ratio)
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup eggs (about 4-5 small eggs) + 1 yolk
1 cup caster sugar
1/4 tsp scant salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
10-15 pieces of pandan leaves, washed and wiped dry and knoted
1/4 cup pandan juice (made from pounded pandan leaves mix with some water)

Use a cheese cloth to help squeeze out the green pandan juice.

Method:
1. Lightly whisk the eggs and seive.
2. Pour all ingredients into machine.

3. Follow machine instruction and press 'jam' fuction and start cooking. While cooking you might need to scrap down the sides.
4. Cool mixture after cooking, remove pandan leaves and blend mixture until you get the consistency you like - super smooth, moderately lumpy or original ala mode.

Final cooked mixture right out of the machine. If you are cooking this by hand it will not be so lumpy. Not to worry, give it a few blitz in the food processer and it'll be nice and smooth!

The entire house smelled so delicious while it was cooking. Even Master Prince who was suppose to be sleeping came down and asked me what cake was I baking. When I told him it was kaya, he didn't believe me. As for DH, he also came down quietly to check on the kitchen activity and kept hinting that something smelt good and hope it would be ready soon.

Couldn't help but grab myself a cracker and slather on some hot homemade green goodness.

Now excuse me while I reward myself with a lip-smacking snack*ngom, ngom...* Best eaten with toast or original Jacobs biscuits.

Short note

Hi, you may have probably noticed that I've been quietly trying to slip in some back-log posts! Obviously not succeeding too well :)

Hope everyone is well. Do apologize for not blogging more often, been busy and there were a few things going on that kept me at bay.

It has been a good rest albeit long but its been appreciated.

As you may have noticed I've still been taking pictures....just didn't have time to clean up the pictures and upload them.

On a personal level, my latest indulgence is that I am SO HOOKED into this Vietnamese instant coffee. It is so fragrant and delicious especially with a tbsp of condense milk (evil but taste so good! ha). Its even great drinking it cold. Sad to say I've just savoured my last sachet and can't wait for my next supply!

If you can get your hands on this, do give it a try. Its really tasty, trust me.

While waiting for my coffee supply, my curiosity got the better of me I ended up walking out with a packet of Korean 3-in-1 mix. Not bad but can't compare the deep rich and complex flavour of the Vietnamese coffee counterpart.



Been inspired with Korean cooking with Vietnamese food recently jumping into the bandwagon. My latest interest is the cooking show by Chef Luke Nguyen. You can check out more at www.sbs.com.au website or just do a search on youtube. Largely due to the language barrier, I am glad to be able to journey with Luke as he cooks and travel around Vietnam.

Noticed that both cuisine like to grill and then wrap their food in lettuce. So find myself adopting a fusion with both using gochujang (Korean red pepper paste) and fresh herbs like mint, corriander, basil and lemongrass. Needless to say the combination is just fantastic, full of fresh and complex flavours - just the way I like it! :)

In the mean time, will try my best to spend a little more time catching up with my blog so do track back my posts if you want to know what I've been up do in the kitchen, haha! Thanks for faithfully dropping by *muaks*

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Next time you eat pumpkin, save the seeds so that you can roast them in your oven for a fat-free, healthy and delicious snack. You can make them savoury or sweet, whichever you prefer.

Ingredients

pumpkin seeds
salt
olive oil
spice of your choice - cayenne pepper, paprika, garlic/onion powder, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, curry powder, etc.

Method:

1. Wash your seeds. Boil them in salt water for 10 min, drain and set aside. Pat dry before baking them.

2. Preheat oven to 200C degrees.

3. Coat seeds with olive oil, salt and spice. Spread seeds out evenly in one layer in the roasting pan. Bake until the seeds begin to brown, about 10-20 minutes.

4. Let roasted seeds cool before consuming. Keep in airtight container.

Hassleback Potatoes

This side dish is not new. I've seen this around and understandably it has the 'wow' factor, design to impress your guest.

As you know, Christmas and New Year are just around the corner, don't you think this dish would just be perfect next to your roast? Best of all, its fairly easy to make. I used the word 'fairly easy' as it could be a little tricky slicing the potato thinly without through the potato. But discovered that if you wedge the potato in between a pair of chopsticks, you'll have a smoother experience!!

There are many various you can make this - original with some salt and pepper, garlic, sour cream, cheese, herbs - really, the list of possibilities seems endless!

Ingredients
6 potatoes, washed and pat dry
2 tbsp olive oil
30 g butter
sea salt
freshly cracked black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 220C degrees.

2. Place on a chopping board, flat side down. Start from one end of the potato, cut almost all the way through, at about 3 to 4 mm intervals. Cut the potato thinner so that it will fan out nicer. If you cut it too fat, it will not look as delicate.

3. Arrange potatoes on a baking tray and scatter some butter in between the potato slits. Drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

4. Bake potatoes for about 40 minutes.

Crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy inside, yum!