Shepherd’s Pie

Tags

autumn recipes, brunch, chives, comfort food, easy recipe, lamb mince, lamb sauce, lunch, mash, mashed potatoes, One bowl meal, pie, rosemary, sheperds pie, thyme, winter recipes, worcestershire sauce

I’ve been itching to have a go at making this pie for a while now! What’s not to love about creamy mashed potatoes and a hearty thick lamb mince ragu all in a single bowl? It’s a pretty balanced meal is it not? Carbs, protein and vegetables? Let’s forget for a moment about the amount of cream and cheese that went into it and label it as the ultimate balanced meal.

Comfort food. Easy to put together. I will definitely make this again! The recipe calls for peas and corn as well but I made do without them since I’ve got a picky eater on my hands today!

Ingredients 

Meat Layer

• Minced lamb – around 700 grams
• 2 carrots, diced into smallish cubes
• 1/2 cup fresh corn kernels
• 1/2 cup fresh English peas (if you’re feeling lazy there’s always the frozen mixed vegetables option which has carrots, corn and peas all in one convenient bag. Use 1.5 cups of the mix then)
• 4 cloves garlic finely minced
• 1 cup minced onion
• 3 tsp chopped rosemary leaves
• 3 tsp thyme leaves
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 3 tbsps Tomato puree, have an additional 3 tbsps on hand if you prefer more of it in the ragu
• 2 tbsps Worcestershire sauce – other recipes call for 1 tsp, I found it insufficient and ended to my taste, so add to your taste
• 2 tbsps all purpose flour
• pepper to taste

Potato Layer

• 700 grams peeled russet potatoes approx.
• 200 ml cream
• 30g salted butter
• pepper to taste
• 1 tsp garlic powder (optional)
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• fresh thyme leaves

Cooking Instructions  

• Heat up butter in a large deep skillet on medium high heat
• Add the chopped onions first, and cook until translucent and starting to caramelise.
• Add the garlic and fry for about half a minute or so until that’s soft
• At this point if the mixture is getting a tad too dry, add a little more butter. After which we can now put the lamb mince into the pan to brown. Break up the meat into small pieces (the smaller, the smoother the ragu will be, but that’s only if you like it that way)
•  Mix in the vegetables, we’re only adding them now as we don’t want to overcook them
• Sprinkle the thyme and rosemary over the mixture and give it a good stir.
• Pour in the red wine, chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce and tomato puree and flour.
• Bring the sauce to a boil and lower the heat to simmer for a couple of minutes. The flour should thicken the sauce in the process.
• Turn the heat off and cover with a lid.

• As for the potatoes, place them in a large pot and cover with cold water
• Add salt to the water
• Bring to a boil. Once they are pierced easily with a fork, drain them. Check in about 10 minutes, if the potatoes are still resistant to the fork the leave for a bit longer. However, take care that you don’t overcook them. Don’t want mushy potatoes!
• Press the potatoes through a ricer (or mash them by hand) and put aside.
• Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan and add the cream. Bring this to a gentle simmer before adding the potatoes to the cream and mixing it all up. Season with salt and pepper.
• (Additional step:- you can put the mashed potatoes through a sieve to get rid of all the lumps for that smooth mash)

Ladle the ragu into your prettiest deep dish (one that is oven-compatible). Sprinkle a layer of cheese over the ragu.   Spread the mashed potatoes evenly over the ragu like so.
After which you’re done. You can use a fork to create patterns on the mash which will turn out a little crispy after some time in the oven. My ideal meat ragu to potato ratio  is 3:1.

However, you can add more if you like your mash. Here, I decorated the top by squeezing the potatoes through a decorative nozzle.

Sprinkle some cheese over the top of the mash layer, and arrange some thyme leaves strategically into the top layer as a sort of garnish and for the fragrance.

Bake at 205 Celsius for around 20-30 minutes
Added some chopped chives before serving, just because I like chives.
  

Whole Roast Chicken and Roast Chicken Thighs

Tags

baste, butter, celery, chicken, chicken thighs, compound butter, dinner, easy, easy meals, easy preparation, french cut, garlic, mains, onion, oven, oven roast, protein, quick preparation, roast chicken, roast chicken thighs, rosemary, thyme, western, whole, whole roast chicken

Roast chicken dinner for the family! There’s nothing quite like a full roast at the dining table… and no, Nandos and Kenny Rogers do not count. Roasting a whole chicken (or just the thighs as I will show later on in this post) is actually easier than one would think.

Fresh out of the oven and piping hot, it releases a perfumed steam as you cut into the juicy roast. Absolutely divine.
My shopping haul XD. So without further ado, the ingredients:-

Ingredients (for just 1 roast chicken, you can double it if your family is as greedy as mine)

• 1.7kg whole chicken
• 25g salted butter, softened
• 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary (or whichever herbs you prefer)
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thmye
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 medium white onion
• 1 stalk of celery of around 10 inches, chopped into large sections (optional)
• 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary
• salt
• black pepper

Instructions

In a small bowl, combine the butter, chopped thyme, rosemary and garlic to form the compound herb butter.
  To prep the chicken, remove feet, giblets, head, neck and internal organs. Give the chicken a rinse and then pat it dry with some paper towels.
Gently separate the skin from the meat of the breast and spread the herb butter on the meat underneat the skin. If you can get to it, try to spread it onto a part of the thighs as well. Take the remaining butter and rub the skin (do it as gently as possible so the skin does not break. It is very important to keep the skin intact and whole). Rub some salt and black pepper onto the entire surface of the chicken, including the cavity of the chicken. If you’re prepping the chicken the night before, cover the chicken with cling wrap and refrigerate it. Some would condone leaving the chicken uncovered for crispier skin but I just can’t bear the thought of food exposed in the fridge!

Take the chicken out of the fridge an hour before cooking. This makes for tender chicken and even cooking throughout the bird.
  Stuff the cavity with the onion, celery and 1 sprig each of the thyme and rosemary. Here I had stuffed a lemon into the chicken but I’d much prefer the onion and celery option.
Scatter the remaining herbs on top and it’s good to go into the oven!  
Into the oven they go at 205 degrees celsius.   Roast for around 1.5 hours, basting the chicken in its own juices every half an hour.
And there you have it,  a hearty roast chicken that’s ready to be eaten with a variety of side dishes, as can be seen in the picture below!   Roasted some vegetables (recipe to come), made some mushroom soup, lobster pasta, cauliflower cheese (recipe to come) and pomme puree (recipe to come) as well as gravy to go with the chicken.

My sister also made some excellent focaccia bread to go with aged balsamic vinegar. I’m going to nick the recipe off her as well!
  Complete roast chicken dinner.

Roast Chicken Thighs

This is a good alternative when cooking for 1-2 people or if you simply prefer the thigh meat.  Clean the chicken and pat dry. You can use the chicken straight away but I prefer to make it look … somewhat more posh and french.   With reference to the above picture, I cut around the bone near the end of the drumstick. What happens is that I cut through the tendons and sinew (as seen in the top chicken). Remove visible tendons (they’re tough to eat). After which I proceeded to remove all skin, bone and cartilage from the bone end of the chicken, thus resulting the the chicken on the bottom of the picture. All cleaned up at the end.Chicken quarters cleaned up french style.

Make the compound butter (same as that used in the whole roast chicken recipe)

  Smear the compound butter under the skin as evenly as you can.

Tempt the dog (dog doesn’t seem tempted at all).Place the chicken into the oven preheated at 205 degrees celsius (ignore the 190 degrees seen in the picture) for about an hour or until juices run clear and the skin is golden brown in colour. Don’t forget to baste the juices onto the chicken, a couple of times will do I should think.

That’s it! Oh and if you have spare sprigs of herbs, go ahead and arrange them onto the completed dish for decoration.

Quick post: Roasted chicken thighs!

Tags

butter, carrots, cast iron pan, chicken gravy, compound butter, cream, gravy, gravy from scratch, mased potatoes, mash, pomme puree, potato rinser, roast, roast chicken, sieve, thyme, young carrots

Been a while since my last post! Coming up: myhumblefood recipes for pomme purée (basically an incredibly light and creamy French version of mashed potatoes), chicken gravy from scratch and the roast chicken. 

 

Lobster glass noodle soup with shaoxing wine.

Tags

big head prawn, big head prawn noodle soup, Chinese, chinese lettuce, chinese soup, chinese soup noodles, coriander, dinner, easy meals, glass noodles, healthy, Home Cooking, huatiao, large prawns, lobster, lobster glass noodle, lobster glass noodle soup, lobster noodle, lobster noodle soup, lunch, Noodles, One bowl meal, prawns, seafood, sesame oil, shaoxing wine, Soup, South East Asian, stew, wine broth, wine soup

Here is the second half of the lobster (first half of which went to making the lobster pasta) and the easier recipe of the two. The original version called for fresh river prawns/big head prawns but since I had the lobster, I figured I could use that instead and add in some large prawns as a bonus. Since there is no recipe that I could refer to online I tried to recreate the taste the best I could remember. Turns out I’m actually quite satisfied with the results! Now without further ado, the recipe:-

Ingredients (4 pax)

• 1/2 lobster
• 6 large prawns (in my first attempt I used 3, but the attempt with 6 prawns tasted better)
• 1 inch ginger, sliced
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp minced onion
• 1/2 cup Shaoxing wine (maybe a dash more if you like)
• 5 cups chicken stock
• Chinese lettuce (I used a quarter of a head), cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 150g Glass noodles
• Spring onions chopped into large three inch sections.
• Coriander for garnish
• Finely chopped spring onions for garnish
• salt

The array of ingredientsGlass noodlesLarge lobster.

So we shall start with the prawns. De-shell all the prawns and set the shells/heads aside. Do NOT throw them away! Then devein them and cut each prawn into three sections.Size of the prawn heads and my hand, just for comparison. Lots of flavour in those prawn heads! 

Cut the lobster into half. If the lobster is as spiny as this one, do use a towel and be very careful when handling it. A pair of strong kitchen scissors would be a great help here.

More pictures of the lobster… as you can probably tell, I’ve added pictures from a second lobster noodle attempt into the mix. The second lobster looked way fresher and more succulent with its firmer white flesh and golden globules.

When you’ve managed to cut the lobster into half lengthwise, chop the tail into three parts and dig out some of the flesh from the head (I forgot to do that here) and set that aside with the prawns. Leave the orange/golden stuff behind.

Heat up some oil in a large pot and fry the ginger, garlic and onions until the onions are translucent and the aroma of the ginger comes out. It helps to crush the ginger before or during this step.Add the prawn shells and fry until half cooked (almost that coral colour they become when they’re fully cooked) before adding the lobster head to the pot.Continue frying for a minute or so, adding a little oil if it gets too dry. Then add the shaoxing wine to soak up all that flavour that’s coming from the prawn shells and lobster head. I actually would have liked to add another half cup of shaoxing wine but I was worried my family may not like the taste so I stuck with half a cup, but go ahead and use that extra half a cup if you like. 

Add the stock and simmer for around 15 minutes before turning off the heat. Cover the pot with its respective lid and leave it for perhaps an hour.

Then, remove the prawn shells from the stock (if you had a strainer bag in the first place, use it to hold the prawn shells because it can be a chore to pick them out from the soup).

Toss in the lobster and prawn meat that was set aside earlier, along with the spring onion sections, lettuce and glass noodles. The reason why we cook the shells and the meat separately is so that we can extract the most flavour out of the seafood from the shells without overcooking the meat, which is only added at the end. If you were to cook the meat right at the start, you’re going to end up with some very hard, overcooked and dry chunks of prawn/lobster which is such a waste of good seafood.

Place the lid back on and bring the soup to a boil.

Add the sesame oil at the end and season with salt. Top with chopped spring onions and coriander. Easy peasy!

Kanto style Sukiyaki すき焼き, Japanese hotpot

Tags

bacon, black pig, cast iron pot, easy, grilled tofu, Home Cooking, hot plate, hotpot, japanese, kanto style sukiyaki, kanto sukiyaki, kurobuta, leeks, mizuna, nabe, nabemono, pork, pork shoulder, raw eggs, seared tofu, shirataki, streaky pork, sukiyaki, udon, yaki tofu, yaki-dofu

On a recent trip to Hokkaido, I finally got to try sukiyaki. It’s a pretty commonplace dish, one that I’ve never tried because most of the time sukiyaki tends to be a quintessential beef hotpot dish. I don’t eat beef so I could never have it. In Hokkaido however, I found a sukiyaki place that offers the pork option. After cooking the pork in the sauce and dipping it in raw egg, I fell immediately in love with sukiyaki.

Many cooking videos and recipes later I discovered that there are two main types of sukiyaki; kansai style sukiyaki and kanto style sukiyaki. Kansai style sukiyaki calls for the method of frying the meat in some rendered fat and sugar before adding the sauce and the rest of the ingredients to the pot. Kanto style is where the sauce, called warishita (割り下）, is prepared beforehand and everything is thrown in. This is what I am more familiar with. Normal chinese hotpot sessions normally have large boiling tubs of soup with various vegetables, fishballs and meat thrown in. I guess sukiyaki is a little more special as it seems to be geared towards good cuts of meat. It is also sweet and savory making the cooked meat perfect with a bowl of white rice.

I was initially worried about the idea of using raw egg back here in Malaysia. Salmonella and all. Then I discovered that pasteurized eggs are safe for raw consumption as they eliminate risk of Salmonella and Avian flu virus. Make sure you do your research before buying and consuming raw eggs in any circumstance! I bought mine from safeegg at Aeon:-

http://www.safegg.com.my/subContent/what_is_safegg.swf

Ingredients (feeds 6 people)

warishita (割り下）sauce

• 3/4 cup sake
• 3/4 cup mirin
• 3/4 cup sugar and 1-2 tbsps extra sugar in case you want it sweeter (*edit* I used less sugar and found it so much better, around 2/3 cup. I’d recommend 2/3 cup of sugar  rather than 3/4 cup as it is less cloying and enhances the taste of the ingredients better)
• 1.5 cups light soy sauce (I got the low sodium Kikkoman soy sauce, which is why I still had to add a little salt afterwards; it wasn’t salty enough ;p)
• 2 tsp salt
• 4.5 cups water

Other ingredients 

• 1.5 kg of sliced meat (I got some sliced pork belly, pork shoulder and even managed to get some kurobuta meat)
• 1 leek
• 4 stalks of spring onion
• 6 pasteurized eggs
• 1 carrot
• 1 large onion
• 1 pack firm tofu
• 1 pack enoji mushroom
• 10-12 fresh shiitake mushrooms
• 1 pack other mushrooms (whichever you like)
• Shungiku leaves – I couldn’t find these so I used mizuna. You can use any other preferred leafy vegetables
• 1/2 chinese cabbage
• Udon (I used 3 packets but since we also had rice we couldn’t finish all the udon. Cook as much as you think you need)

For sukiyaki it would be sufficient if you had a multi-purpose cooker placed in the center of the table so as to cook all the food as you eat. I do NOT think it is a good idea to throw in all the ingredients and cook it in the kitchen and brought over to the table. It pretty much defeats the purpose of sukiyaki and more often than not your ingredients will be overcooked and will lack the “freshly cooked” taste to it. I used a cast iron pot with sides high enough so that I can fit all the vegetables comfortably, as well as a hot plate.

Cooking Instructions

• Wash all the vegetables and mushrooms.
• Cut off the roots of the spring onions and cut the spring onions into 3 sections.
• Cut off the roots of the enoki mushrooms and separate them
• Cut off the stems of the shiitake mushrooms and create star shape patterns onto the cap of the mushrooms

It’s also a good idea to arrange the vegetables in large plates as you go along. Presentation is always important in Japanese cuisine!

• Slice the carrot thickly
• Slice onion
• Cut the chinese cabbage into bite sized pieces
• Pour a tablespoon of oil into a frying pan and fry/sear the surface of the tofu. What we are making here is yaki-dofu or grilled tofu. This is a good step-by-step on how to make it:http://japanese-kitchen.net/yaki-dofu-grilled-tofu/
• Once you’re done searing the tofu, cut it into bite sized pieces

Tadahhh! All that effort of cleaning and cutting those vegetables! Not to mention searing tofu. I accidentally broke off some of the edges T___T

• Prepare the udon according to instructions and set aside
• Drain the shirataki and set aside

Next, combine all the wareshita ingredients in the pot and simmer to dissolve sugar.

Prepare all the meat and have it on standby with the vegetables.

Start the sukiyaki feast!   

Place your pot on the hot plate and bring the sauce to a simmer. Cook the meat, dip into raw beaten egg and eat with fresh white rice. Throw the ingredients in according to your preference but I’d suggest putting in the leeks, onions and carrots first along with the meat as it lends more sweetness to the sauce. Not that it matters much, the sauce is already sweet enough, it’s just that these vegetables also take more time to cook. Enjoy!!

Pork loin tonkatsu

Tags

breaded, deep fried, easy, easy recipes, flour, japanese, japanese cuisine, katsu, panko, pork, pork loin, pork tonkatsu, potato flour, tonkatsu

Pork tonkatsu is a deep-fried, breaded pork dish, very common dish in Japanese cuisine and generally comes in two types;  pork fillet (ヒレ, hire) or pork loin (ロース, rōsu) cut. It goes well with Japanese curries or on its own with some lemon or tonkatsu sauce (you can get these at your local Japanese grocer). I opted for mayonnaise and english mustard for mine. This is the basic pork tonkatsu, using pork loin. First you dust the meat in flour, then in an egg batter and finally some Japanese panko breadcrumbs before frying them until golden brown. You can play around with the fillings using this concept, some restaurants roll up some sliced meats and layer them with cheese, mentaiko etc. to make tonkatsu, and those are amazing as well!

Ingredients (3 pax: 1 pork loin per pax)

• 3 pork loin cuts
• 1 beaten egg lightly seasoned with salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup of potato flour
• 3/4 cup or more of Japanese panko breadcrumbs (adjust as you see fit, I normally eyeball the amount and add when I feel that the loins could do with more breadcrumbs)
• enough cooking oil to submerge the pork cutlets

Cooking Instructions

• In preparing the pork, remove the excess fat if you’re not a fan. If you like it then by all means leave the fat on. Either way, you will need to make several cuts on the side where the fat/tendon is. Make sure the fat/tendon is cut through in each incision made. This ensures that the pork does not curl up during the cooking process
• Next, use a meat tenderizer and pound at the meat on each side. It will flatten out a little after the pounding. Don’t go overboard as you might end up with pork shreds! Just enough pounding to ensure that the pork will be juicy and tender after cooking. Rearrange the pork back into its original shape (pat it back into shape!)
• Season both sides of the pork loin with some salt and pepper.

• Press the pork into the flour, lightly covering all surfaces of the meat, and tap off the excess flour
• Next, dip the pork into the egg mixture, lightly coating the pork in egg
• Lastly coat the pork in panko breadcrumbs. It should look like this when you’re done:-

• Heat up some oil in  wok or a pot on high heat. Ensure that there’s enough oil to completely submerge the pork, otherwise it will not have an even colouring.
• Before placing the pork into the oil, test it with a pair of cooking chopsticks. Tiny bubbles should form around it, as shown in the following photo:

• Gently place your pork into the oil. It is very important NOT to overcrowd the pan as that again will lead to uneven colouring and the tendency to overcook the pork is pretty high. We all have moments where we think the heat is not high enough and end up leaving the meat to cook way longer than it should. Lesson learnt, do not overcrowd the pan so that the temperature remains high and food cooks as it should.
• Cook until the pork turns golden brown.

• Flip the pork once halfway through cooking so that the top part of the pork gets a chance to brown evenly too!

• Remove the pork cutlets and place them on a wire rack to drain off the excess oil.

• If you are going to make another batch of tonkatsu, make sure you skim off all the burnt bits from the oil before frying the next batch. Otherwise, other than uneven colouring on the next batch of tonkatsu, you risk burning them too. It’s not what I’d call appetizing 😉

• Slice it up and take a moment to appreciate that satisfying *cruncchhh*~ when you cut through the crispy golden layer.

❤

Serve!! In Japanese restaurants, this is normally served with some steaming hot white rice, miso soup and some pickles with some lemon and sauce on the side. Along with a mountain of shredded cabbage. Makes you feel a lot better about all the deep fried food you’re about to have ;D

Er…. but the Malaysian that I am decided to serve it with a variety of other foods. Made a simple fried omelette dish, some deep fried breaded silverfish, stir fried green vegetables and my favorite garlic soy lamb!

Home cooking

Tags

deep fried breaded prawns, ebi fry, ebi furai, eggs, fried vegeables, healthy, Home Cooking, malaysia, onion and egg omelette, pork cutlet, singapore, steamed fish, steamed tofu and minced pork, steamed tofu and pork, tonkatsu

 

Just a quick post on what I made for dinner the other day when my family came over to Singapore. Typical food that you’d get in a Malaysian/Singaporean home.

Steamed fish, tofu with minced pork, fried egg onion omelette, stir fried vegetables and something that veers towards Japanese cuisine, the fried pork cutlets and prawns (Tonkatsu and ebi furai).

 

My kitchen, with the deep fried tonkatsu on a cooling rack and the ebi fry bubbling in the hot oil.

Beautifully golden ebi fry. My first attempt at it, will put up posts on how to make the tonkatsu and the ebi fry. Both dishes use almost the same method of preparation and cooking though 😉

 

Whoops, this picture came out sideways. This is the tofu dish, but I think I went overboard with the minced pork topping. May need to put up a proper post on this dish too. It goes amazingly well with rice and healthy to boot.

Steamed barramundi fish with lots of spring onions and chinese parsley (cilantro).

 

Kimchi Bibim Guksu (Spicy cold noodles with kimchi)

Tags

bibim guksu, cold noodles, dinner, fast meals, gochujang, kimchi, kimchi bibim guksu, Korean, lunch, mains, Noodles, perilla, quick meals, sesame, sesame oil, shiso, spicy, spicy cold noodles

I’m a big fan of Korean dramas and variety shows (I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before). I blame it on those very shows that I’m getting fatter by the day. They make Korean food look so sooooo appetizing! These are one of the dishes that I saw on the telly sometime back. It sounded and looked good… cold kimchi noodles.

After a bit of research, I decided to try the recipe from Korean Bapsang (website below). Her stuff is what you’d call “daebak” (awesome). Her food photos and recipes seem pretty and easy to follow so I made the noodles a few months ago with the recipe. It was good! Totally would make this again. Cold, sour rounded by some sweetness, and a little spice. And kimchi always makes everything taste better.

http://www.koreanbapsang.com/2011/07/kimchi-bibim-guksu-spicy-cold-noodles.html#.Ug-0fhYqS0s

Speaking about spice, I ordered this dish today at a Korean restaurant. All I can say is that I must have downed a whole jug of iced water after a few bites. I’m a person that would sprinkle chilli flakes liberally all over my food and use chilli padi soy sauce as a favourite condiment so I don’t think my spice tolerance is that low. But I really couldn’t enjoy the noodles, it being so spicy! So if you’re not a fan of spicy food, you can adjust the level of gochujang to suit your preferences (this recipe isn’t that spicy in any case).

Secondly, on my recent trip to Japan, I frequented a korean restaurant in Takashimaya, Tokyo (I really liked it!) and made a discovery. In all my posts on Korean food so far I’ve been referring to shiso/Japanese perilla leaves as the Korean perilla leaf. When I tried the real Korean perilla leaf I was taken aback. I absolutely had no idea that they were so different! As wikipedia clarifies:

“The flavor is distinct from Japanese perilla, and the leaf appearance is different, as well – larger, rounder, flatter, with a less serrated edge, and often a violet coloring on the reverse side.”

Well that explains why the leaf was so large. So now, I’m on a mission to find Korean perilla leaves in Singapore ;p

Ingredients (2 pax); recipe from Korean Bapsang

• 8 – 10 ounces somyeon (somen) noodles
• 1 cup thinly sliced kimchi (fully fermented)
• 1/4 cup juice from kimchi (use a little more soy sauce and vinegar if unavailable)
• 1 tablespoon Korean red chili pepper paste, gochujang (adjust to taste)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon corn syrup (use honey or more sugar if unavailable)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons rice or apple vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• Optional garnish:
• 4 perilla leaves, kkaennip, thinly sliced (my pictures show the Japanese perilla leaves/shiso leaves)
• (or cucumber or lettuce, thinly sliced)

Cooking instructions

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil while preparing the kimchi sauce.

Thinly slice the kimchi and place it in a medium size bowl. Add the remaining sauce ingredients and mix well.

Add the noodles to the pot of boiling water. Cook the noodles according to the package instructions (3 – 4 minutes).

Prepare a bowl of iced water to dip the noodles into. The recipe in Korean Bapsang calls for cold water, however if it is not cold enough the noodles could get soggy quite easily. So just in case, just use iced water.

Drain the noodles quickly and shock in iced water to stop the cooking. Drain and rinse in cold water again. Repeat until the noodles become cold. Drain well.

Here’s the fun part! Throw your cold noodles into the sauce mixture and toss so that the sauce coats the noodles evenly. Try not to over-handle the noodles with utensils or you could get mashed noodles. Not yummy. Use your wrist to toss the noodles in the bowl and use chopsticks to further mix the noodles.

Dish into a serving bowl and top with (Korean) perilla leaves. I thought Japanese ones worked just as well.

Perfect dish for a hot day!

Mentaiko pasta

Tags

ikura, marinated cod roe, mentaiko, mentaiko cream pasta, mentaiko pasta, Pasta, seaweed

Yes, pasta again and this time, with mentaiko (marinated cod roe or pollock roe). By itself, the mentaiko is salty and sometimes spicy, which is why its normally eaten raw with rice (only if it’s sashimi quality) or used in cooking for flavor. It goes really well with fatty foods like cream and mayonnaise.

This dish is pretty simple and easy to prepare. Almost foolproof!

Ingredients (for 2 pax)

• 2 pieces of mentaiko (or 100gram mentaiko)
• Pasta of your choice (I used angel hair/quick cook spaghetti)
• 1 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 3 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• Seaweed strips for topping
• Ikura for garnishing (optional)
• 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese for use in the sauce
• 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese for sprinkling over pasta
• 2 birds eye chilli/chilli padi, sliced
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 20g butter
• Handful of chopped chives for garnishing (optional)

Instructions 

• Cut the mentaiko sac

Use a spoon to scrape out all the contents into a small bowl. Remove the sac

• Remove sac from bowl

• Add 2-3 tbsp cream and mix into the mentaiko.

• The mentaiko cream mixture will make it much easier to combine into the pasta sauce later.

• Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and add the minced garlic and sliced chilli padi
• Add in the rest of the cream once the garlic is golden and before the butter starts to brown. Simmer for a couple of minutes.

• Add in the mentaiko cream mixture and cheese

• Stir in thoroughly

• Add in the mayonnaise (this below picture is from a previous mentaiko pasta attempt) and stir to incorporate. Turn off the heat

• Cook the pasta 
• Meanwhile, prepare a pot of almost boiling water to poach your eggs and add the vinegar to the pot.
• And as I’m no expert in poaching eggs, here’s a website that shows you how to poach eggs 😉
• http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/easy_poached_eggs/

• Drain the cooked pasta and immediately add it to the sauce. Toss over medium heat to combine before removing the pan from the fire.

• Dish out the pasta. As you can see, this amount could probably feed 3 but I was greedy ;(
• Make a little well in the centre, you’ll drop your poached egg into here later.

• Add the egg into the centre of the pasta and garnish with seaweed, chopped chives, cheese and ikura

And its done! Its a very rich dish so the tanginess from the japanese mayo and the spice from the chilli helps to dispel that sense of “jelakness”.

Uni cream pasta (Sea Urchin)

Tags

angel hair, butter, chives, cream, cream pasta, dinner, fusion, ikura, lunch, mains, Noodles, parmesan cheese, Pasta, prawns, salmon roe, sea urchin, shrimp, sinful, uni, uni cream pasta, uni pasta

Sea urchin roe is one of my favourite sashimi! So rich and creamy and briny <3. I tried  sea urchin pasta for the first time in Japan a few years back and it was amazing as well. And of course I had to try to make it myself, but I always feel heartsick at the thought of throwing all the expensive uni into pasta when I can just have it as sashimi and savour every single bit of it. That’s why on my first attempt at uni pasta, I just used a few bits (see the following 3 pictures).

I probably used a quarter of the package of uni. The box of uni in itself is already really small, so the uni flavour in the pasta wasn’t as prominent as I would have liked it. But the pictures were way better as I took them during the daytime, whereas my 2nd attempt photos were dependent on dim lighting =(.

Pleased to say that on the 2nd attempt, the pasta came out creamier and more luscious! I sacrificed the whole box this time… just for myself *guilt*. I also omitted the seaweed as it got in the way of the flavour of the pasta. It goes better with mentaiko pasta I think.

The recipe was adapted from http://www.eataduckimust.com/uni-pasta

Ingredients (For 1 greedy person)

• 1/2 cup thickened cream (the original recipe calls for 1 cup cream per person, you could just adjust accordingly. I’m just trying to make myself feel less guilty)
• 3 prawns shelled and deveined with tails on (Reserve the prawn shells and heads)
• 20g butter
• 1 package uni (sea urchin)
• 1 chilli padi, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 egg yolk
• chives for garnishing
• handful of parmesan cheese
• Angel hair/instant cook spaghetti or other pasta noodle of your choice
• Ikura (as much as you like)

• Melt the butter over low heat and add the prawn heads/shells in. Crush the prawn heads so that all the flavour comes out into the butter. Take the pan off the heat so that the butter doesn’t brown and continue crushing the shells.

• Pour the butter and shells into a sieve and squeeze out all the juices/butter into another pan (you’ll use this pan to make the cream sauce)

• Meanwhile, sear the prawns and set aside

• Throw in the chilli padi and the minced garlic into the pan with the prawn head butter and fry until the garlic turns golden. If you like, you can also add a little more butter.
• Add in the cream and bring to a simmer before switching it off. Don’t boil the cream.
• When the cream has cooled a little, pour into a blender. Your cream shouldn’t be hot as this would cook the uni and scramble the egg later. The uni needs to be soft, raw and creamy while the egg yolk needs to be silky.
• Save a few pieces of the uni for garnishing, and add the rest to the cream.

• Blend the uni and cream (just need to give it a few pulses) and pour the mixture back into the pan.
• Add the beaten egg yolk and stir it in.

• Add a tablespoon or so of parmesan cheese into the cream and heat the mixture up again (I’m guestimating here, adapt to your own tastes ;p) . Taste it and season with some salt. (I didn’t put pepper as I thought it might overpower the uni)
• Add in the freshly cooked pasta and mix it into the sauce. If you have strong wrists, toss the lot to combine.

• Dish out the pasta onto a serving plate, top with the prawns, raw uni, some chives, a bit more cheese and as much ikura as you like~

So silky and creamy and decadent 😉

Now that I’ve seen the amount of sea urchin, prawn head brains and cream that went into the dish, my heart is starting to palpitate at the sheer amount of cholesterol that went into this meal ;(

To the gym!