A Thought

No food/recipes today. A thought though...I wonder why most westerners (save for some passionate foodies) don't take food as seriously as the Chinese do. Food is to be treasured and treated with respect because it heals, although it can also kill. The reason why I said that westerners do not take food as seriously as us is because I see a lot of them waste food, every single day. On TV, in homes and even in eateries. Food are thrown away without a second thought - I often watch in horror when plates full of salads, meats, fish left over by customers here are thrown away in restaurants.

I was brought up never to waste food because food is precious and there is blood and sweat shed by someone out there for this food to brought onto the table. In short, it's almost blasphemy to waste food. Not to be mistaken, I did not come from a poor family, I came from quite a comfortable beginning but my parents and my grandparents have always instilled in me the sense of appreciating food. I suppose the fact that my grandparents went through WW2 did make them understand and appreciate food, to which they impart that principle to their children and then to me.

rice farmers

Food, to me, is one of the very few things that can bind people together, and that is part of the reason why I love cooking and feeding people good food. I love being able to share that part of me with them and to have them embrace it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And noticing the difference between people here in the western world throwing away food like it's nothing makes me feel kind of sorry for them. And a part of me wishes that they'll suffer hunger/starvation so that they'd appreciate food more.

Well, I know westerners aren't the only ones who wastes food, which why I said "most" westerners in the first place. I, myself, have seen asians doing the same. I really think that it's in the upbringing. If parents never taught their kids that food is to be appreciated and not wasted - they'd grow up to be food appreciating people, naturally. I was at a buffet luncheon in one of the poshes hotel down in KL, Malaysia. My family and I sat beside a family of 5 (parents and 3 kids). Everyone in the family brought 2 plateful of food each as if there is no tomorrow. I mean it's serious piling up there - each plate is at least 3 inches high. Much to what I expected, half of the food were not eaten... those bratty kids even had the cheek to say "Mommmmyyy...I want McDonald's ice cream" after too - to which their indulgent mother replied with compliance. My god... I was quite disgusted at how some people can be so decadent and wasteful. *shakes head*

Perhaps the only way for people to appreciate food is to go through starvation like how my grandparents did during the World War 2 era. Living only on tapioca will teach any person that good food is hard to come by and everytime there is food on the table, you should count your blessings for you are luckier than millions of others out there.

A Bed of Croutons!

Croutons go very well with salads and soups. I made my own croutons the other day and I thought I'd share it with you guys. It's the southwestern method aka the fat boy's version of croutons. I adapted the recipe from Paula Dean from the Lady and Sons Restaurant in Savannah, Georgia. Her recipe link HERE.

Alright, let's get right to the recipe!

Ingredients:



6 slices of stale bread (any kind) cut up into small cubes.
Oil enough to cover up to 1 inch of the frying pan


Seasoning:
1 tablespoon of garlic powder
2 teaspoon of salt
a handful of dried parsley
1 tablespoon of fine herbs (or any kind you like - pick a woody kind of herb like terragon, thyme or even basil would do the trick better)


Method:
1. Heat oil on medium heat till it sizzles when you throw in a piece of breadcrumbs
2. Once oil is heated through add the cube bread in - take care not to burn the bread...it takes about 1 min before you can scoop the bread out of the oil.


3. Place the fried bread onto a paper towel to soak up excess oil...move it around to make sure all excess oil is soaked up.
4. Put bread while it's still hot onto a bowl and add all the seasoning in.
5. Shake and toss till the croutons and seasoning are well mixed. After that, let it cool before you store them in an air tight container. It will last you a while.

A sea of croutons

It's definitely decadent. But if you're only eating salad with lemon and olive oil dressing, the croutons makes up for a fulfilling bite. It's great with tomato soup too! Of course, croutons in Caesar Salad is a must ;)

Oh...and if you would like a healthier version of croutons, just drizzle oil onto the breadcrumbs and bake for 20-30 mins on 375 F oven. Then combine the seasoning on the crouton as followed.

Making Sushi

A meal of sushi for two.

A lot of people confuse sushi to be raw fish. Well, a lot of caucasians confuse sushi to be raw fish...:P Sushi is basically steam cooked japanese rice wrapped with whatever you fancy, really. Do a wiki search on sushi - it's interesting. Sashimi, and not sushi, is the name for slices of raw fish usually served with some soy sauce and wasabi.

There are many types of sushi but the sushi I am making are called sushi rolls - the most common sushi type you see in sushi bars.

The perfect sushi is actually in the rice. It doesn't matter what you put in it but as long as you have got your rice right, you're good.

What you need for the PERFECT sushi rice:
3 cups of rice
3 3/4 cup water
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

The rest of the ensemble:
Nori (seaweed sheets)
cucumbers, julienned
carrots, julienned
red peppers, julienned

optional filling: kimchi, kimchi fried chicken, roasted pork, teriyaki chicken, cucumbers, tuna, etc etc etc.

Once that is done, we shall go to sushi-making step by step:

First you will need to clean the rice:


You gotta make sure that you clean them well - that means getting rid of the white murkiness of the water. And at the same time, you polish the rice by rubbing them between your hands gently. The rice is very fragile and will break easily so just do it like how you would play mud, for example.


Once your rice is cleaned, you add 3 and 3/4 cup of water into the rice and let it cook in a rice cooker.


While your rice is cooking, prepare your sushi vinegar (sushi-zu) where you will need to add at the end when the rice is cooked. So, combine the rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt and stir it till all solids are dissolved. You can microwave the vinegar solution for 30 seconds to help dissolve the solids too! :)


Once that's done and your rice is cooked. Fluff it up with a fork or with your rice scoop gently while pouring the sushi vinegar in. Stir the rice to combine flavors...stir as how you would fold a cake batter - and while you're at it, fan the rice with a magazine using the other hand or just do it like me; blow air into the rice with your mouth. Be careful to not to spit in it......

Your rice should be sticky and not mushy. Each rice grain should look polished and shiny, just like in the picture. Scoop your rice out onto a plate.

It's now time to assemble your sushi! I even made my own gari (pickled ginger; recipe later) as you can see in the picture.

Here's my sushi mat and my nori sheets.

So put a the rice on the nori sheet like in the picture...

Start adding your filling. I live with a vegetarian, so i added julienned tofu pieces which i marinated with some soy, pepper and mushroom sauce.


Roll your sushi tightly. It's the beginning that is the hardest but once you get the hang of it, it'll be a breeze.


So, in the end, you should get a tightly rolled sushi. Continue rolling until you have used up all the rice. 3 cups of rice should yield you about 5 rolls of sushi - depending on how big or small you want them to be. Mine were pretty large rolls.

Cut the sushi into 3/4 inch thick rolls. And you have a feast :)

I made a sushi out of stir fried kimchi chicken for myself. The result? Absolutely scrumptious! And we have left overs for lunch tomorrow too. Sweet!

Stir fried Kimchi Chicken

Stir Fried Kimchi Chicken

As I said before, kimchi is a very versatile food - you can eat it as a side dish or you can fry it up with your favorite meat and it's just really yummy. Here's a simple recipe of a kimchi stir fry. I don't know how it can get complicated since all you need is kimchi and meat/fish/poultry.

I used chicken this time.

Stir Fried Kimchi Chicken recipe:

500g chicken pieces (thigh or fillet cut into bite size pieces; boneless)
kimchi (as much as you want really) and some of its juice
1 tbsp sesame seed oil*
1 tbsp soy sauce*
1 tbsp sesame seeds*

* these ingredients are optional although they do enhance the flavor of your kimchi stir fry.

Method:

1. Combine ALL ingredients together and let it marinate for about 10 mins.
2. Heat pan/wok on a medium heat with a bit of oil.
3. Pour kimchi chicken mix into the pan and spread evenly on the pan. Let it cook like that for about 3-5mins



4. Stir fry well with a wooden spoon or whatever you use to stir fry stuff :) for about 5-8mins more.
5. Serve it hot with rice and with a bit of extra kimchi on the side ;)



Enjoy!

Salmon Brochettes - The Raw

Don't these look delectable as they come?




I forgot to take a picture of it after it's cooked........cos uhm, I was pressed for time. I made this brochettes for a guy who wanted to hire me as a personal chef. Well, he gobbled it up while he was talking to me - he really didn't leave much for me to take a picture when I realized I'd forgotten :P

I'm going to do salmon brochettes again soon :) This time I won't forget to take pictures of it when it's cooked.

Biscuits

This is not your typical biscuit you find at home. The biscuit i grew up with was crispy, slight hard and/or crumbly - those are English biscuits. This biscuit, which i am about to share is the North American biscuit. It's not dissimilar to the british scones, just very much less sweet and very plain and buttery. It's perfect with just a simple butter and jam OR you can make it into a sandwich with your favorite cold meats.




Anyway, I took to making my own biscuits when i saw this programme on TV (from the cooking channel) and they were making biscuits. It looks darn easy to make and deliciously tempting. The recipe is very simple - you may just find everything you need right at home but the thing is, you really need practice to make the biscuits fluffy enough to rise beautifully. Over kneading the dough will lead to a hard and chewy biscuit...not unpalatable, just unpleasant all the same.


I got my recipe from The Joy of Baking - author of the recipe is Stephanie Jaworski.

I'm gonna repaste the recipe here but you can go ahead and click on the link above for their recipe there. However, here, I will be adding some of my own personal tips in making your first biscuit attempt a success :)

Recipe:

2 1/2 cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon (12 grams) baking powder/ baking soda (mix both for best results: 1tbsp baking powder and 2 teaspoon baking soda)

1/2 teaspoon (2.5 grams) salt

1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar

1/2 cup (113 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3/4 cup (180 ml) milk

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Topping:

1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon milk

Method:

1. First, chop up the butter into small cubes and leave it in the freezer before you prepare anything else. Yes, the freezer, you don't want soft, melter butter, you want them to be hard enough to manage when you add them to the dry ingredients.

2. Preheat your oven 400 degrees F or 205 degrees C

3. Then, add flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl. You can sift it but I just use my metal whisk to mix it - this achieves the same effect as sifting. So if you don't have a sift, use your whisk :) Make sure everything is mixed evenly, last thing you want is biting into an area that's really salty or bitter (from clumps of baking powder)

4. When everything is mixed properly, take your cubed butter pieces and throw it into the flour mixture. With your finger tips, lightly mix the ingredients till it resembles course bread crumbs. You want to have bits and pieces of butter because it is this that creates air pockets when it gets baked in the oven - it creates very nice and fluffy texture.

5. Add your milk and egg into the floured mixture and knead. I cannot stress how gently you should do this...knead till there is form but still floury. Pour the dough on a counter top and knead it gently around a few times (let's say 3 times). The end product will look like a big dough of lumpy mess. That's fine. It looks much better when it's out of the oven.

6. Use a rolling pin (or my cilindrical sugar bottle :D) and roll the dough into 1/2 inch thick. Use a big round cookie cutter OR just be like me and use a glass and cut into the dough for nice little circles. Place the the cut up dough on a tray with aluminium foil or baking sheets. Repeat until you get excess dough hanging about - just knead them up and into a dough (gently, don't over knead) and roll them out to 1/2 inch thick again and continue cutting you've used up all the excess dough.

7. Beat 1 egg with 1 tbsp milk and brush it on top of the dough before baking.

8. Bake for 10-15 minutes (it takes 17 minutes on my oven) and you'll have nice freshly baked North American Biscuits.

They keep well for up to a week in an air tight container.

Kimchi

Kimchi is one of those food where it requires an acquired taste for. Just like durians (the king of all fruits - it smells like sh*t to some but heavenly to others). Kimchi is actually korean preserved vegetables. I won't say preserved cabbage as there are many different types of kimchis using a variety of vegetables. But the ones we know best is probably kimchi using napa cabbage (or chinese cabbage).

Kimchi is very good for you and for those who love it, like me, it tastes absolutely awesome. And it's VERY easy to make. There is no reason to not be making your own kimchi at all - unless you hate it. And I cannot emphasize enough it's culinary versatility besides being a side dish for most korean cuisine. You can use it to make kimchi stirfry using chicken, tofu, pork, beef, venison, ostrich, or even seafood! You can even use it to flavor soup. It's so good for you health wise and taste wise, even the Japanese have adapted the recipe as part of their diet. But don't be fooled, only true korean kimchis cut it...the Japanese version is just too sweet.

Anyway, I have taken to making my own kimchi at home and it's been a real success so far. To date, i have made like 10 batches, each time, using 3 to 4 chinese cabbages at a time. For those of you who don't know how Napa Cabbaga looks like, here's a picture for you: -


I am sure you'd have seen it in your supermarket somewhere, if not, just go down Chinatown and you'll find some there for about 60 - 75 cents per pound depending on where you are. If you're in asian countries - you'll get it for real cheap.

Anyway, let's get to making kimchi.

kimchi!

What you need:

2 Napa Cabbage
100g Sea Salt (or non-iodized table salt works fine)

10 tablespoons of korean chili powder
2 tablespoon sugar
2 garlic, minced real finely or mash it with the back of a spoon on the chopping board (or just go out and buy a tube of mashed garlic....:P)
1 inch of ginger, minced finely (or 1 teaspoon of ginger powder if you don't have fresh ginger)
5-10 stalks of spring onions (cut into 1 inch lengths)
1 tablespoon of kimchi sauce (optional)

Method:

1. Prepare your cabbage - Cut your cabbages into quarters length wise. Wash them them thoroughly and throw away leaves that are wilted or have dark spots on it. Cut them into 2 inch pieces and place them in a plastic bag. You are going to pickle them with salt because you want to get as much liquid out from the cabbage as possible. In my ready made kimchi pictures, you can see that I didn't chop my cabbage up instead I kept them in quarters so they're big - big also mean harder to marinate later. Don't do that (yet), just cut them into about 2 inch pieces and put them in a plastic bag.

2. Take salt and put all of it into the bag of cabbage. Squish them until all the cabbage are coated with salt. It's fun, just keep squishing until you're sure every leave is about covered in some salt. Once you're done, tie the bag and leave it on the kitchen counter for about 5-8 hours - i just leave it overnight.

3. After that, you'll find that the bag is filled with water and the cabbage has reduced in size considerably. The fun part, more squishing! You squeeze as much liquid out from the cabbage and put them in another bag plastic bag. Once you're done squeezing every bit of liquid off the cabbage, it's time for the next step of marinating and pickling the cabbage with the chili.

4. Put in the garlic, ginger, sugar, spring onions, kimchi sauce (if using), and korean chili powder into the bag of cured cabbages. More squishing. Using your bare hands (or wearing glove if you have nice manicured nails u don't want to ruin), mix the cabbages and all that other ingredients you just put in until everything is covered red. If you want your kimchi to be redder and more peppery like me, add more korean chili powder. Keep squishing till every leaf is covered with the mixture.

5. Take the kimchi out of the bag and transfer it to a big tupperware/container. Cover and leave it out for 4 days on a cool place like your kitchen counter or your fridge (if you're in the tropics). Don't touch it or open it unnecessarily. After 4 days, you can start eating your kimchi! :D Store ready kimchi in fridge.


Now all you need is a little bit of patience. The longer you keep your kimchi, the better it tastes - I am so not kidding. The koreans leave them for months on end, and they never turn bad. Well, i don't think any bacteria can live in that chilli filled condition really.

Anyway, if you would like to make kimchi stirfry - I'll post it on my next post soon! :D

Salad Tri-Patate

This is my version of a potato salad. How is it different? Well, for one thing, it's healthier and you'll see how in a bit. And I used three kinds of potatoes instead of one. You don't necessarily have to use 3 kinds potatoes, you can just use one or two or four, whatever - but I like this combo best. What makes a potato salad a good one is the dressing. Some potato salad makes you feel sick after a few bites because it's SO rich but this salad is so easy to eat, you just keep popping the potato pieces like yummy nothings :)

This recipe yields four servings as a side dish.

Ingredients:
3 yukon gold potatoes
3 russet potatoes
2 sweet potatoes

For Dressing:
1/2 cup of miracle whip
2 tablespoon of mustard
1 small dill pickle
1/2 of a lemon's juice
2 spring onions, chopped
dried herbs (take your pick between oregano, terragon, basil, rosemary)
parsley (optional)
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 stalk of celery (chopped into fine dices)
1/2 an onion diced (optional)
Salt & Pepper for seasoning

Method:
1. Prepare your potatoes - wash them and cut them into quarters or whatever size you want. Make sure they're not too small. Now, most people boil their potatoes, I like to steam them because the flavor and the nutrients don't get lost in the water. You steam them for 15-20 minutes. Use a toothpick to see if they're done.

2. While you wait for you potatoes to steam, you prepare your dressing. Mix ALL of the ingredients for dressing into a bowl. I used tarragon and oregano for this but you can go ahead and use your favorite herbs. Mix well. The celery and onion (if you're adding any) gives a nice crunchy texture to the potato salad :)

3. Once your potatoes are done, toss them into the dressing and coat well. This potato salad is nice served warm or room temperature. In fact, I just had some earlier from the fridge, they're nice served cold too!


Tri-potato in three steps, basically. You just need to do some simple preparation. Now, this potato salad has a tangy flavor to it that makes it really zippy and creamy without being overwhelming. I used miracle whip because it's 67% less fat than normal mayo - and what's best is, the taste is not compromised at all. I'm using Kraft's miracle whip. Salad Tri-Patate is best served with roasts (poultry or any meat) with some steamed green beans tossed in olive oil. YUMZ! This is one of those comfort food we can use sometimes without feeling the guilt.