This garlicky sweet salmon dish is perfect for a quick dinner when the hunger pangs hit. But if you are in no hurry, a quick toss of rice noodles in a spicy citrus dressing makes for an excellent accompaniment to this dish. Imagine a crispy salmon skin with a hint of garlic and a sweet, melt in your mouth salmon on a bed of tangy and refreshing rice noodles.
I just can't wait to make more, but I need to get more Salmon as these were my last two fillets.
Garlic Hoisin Salmon (for 2 person) 4 fillet of salmon, inch thick with skin on 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1 tablespoon of hoisin sauce 2 teaspoon water 1 teaspoon soy sauce
Method 1. Clean your salmon under cold running water and pat dry with some clean kitchen towels. Set aside. 2. Combine the garlic, hoisin sauce, water and soy sauce into a small bowl and mix well. Once it is mixed well, brush the sweet marinade over the salmon and let it marinate for 10-15minutes. 3. Heat non-stick pan with a bit of olive oil or regular oil and sear the salmon skin side down first for 4 minutes. Turn the salmon over and continue cooking for another 3 minutes. 4. Let the salmon rest for 1-3 minutes before serving.
You can eat the salmon as is with rice or go to the next recipe. Rice Noodle Salad 1 packet of thin vermicelli/rice noodles 2 tablespoon olive oil Juice from 1 lime Juice from 1 orange A pinch of lemon and orange zest 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon brown sugar a few drops of sesame oil 1 tablespoon of sambal or Sriracha Chili Sauce a handful of green onions, chopped finely Optional: finely julienne kaffir lime leaves
Method: It is quite easy to soften the vermicelli sticks. Conventionally, you would need to soak them in room temperature/cold water for a few hours until they soften but the process can be expedited with a quick bath and jostle in hot water, and then a quick immersion in cold water after to prevent it from being too mushy.
1. Prepare two large bowls, fill one half full with water and ice cubes. You want it to be extremely cold. On the other bowl, empty the rice noodle/vermicelli packet in. Also bring out a colander to catch the noodles after it's quick hot bath. 2. Bring your kettle to a boil with 6 cups of water. Once the kettle is boiling hot, pour the entire content over the noodles. With a chopstick (or a fork), push the noodles into the hot water and stir it to loosen them up. The noodles will now be completely immersed in hot water, let it sit for 4-5minutes. 3. Pour the noodles in hot water over a colander, careful to not scald yourself and quickly immerse them in the cold bath. The icy cold water will bring bounce back into the noodles - stir to loosen the strands. Once that is done, pour the noodles in cold water over the colander again and drain well. Set aside. 4. In a large serving bowl (or the same large bowl used to carry boiling water and noodles), combine the seasonings together and half of the green chopped green onions. Whisk them for marriage. Add half of the noodles in (keep the other half of the unused noodle portions in the fridge for later use - add them to soups or make a stir fry). 5. Toss the noodles well and adjust the flavoring in accordance to taste.
Serve the noodles with slabs of Garlic Hoisin Salmon and sprinkle the remaining green onions over the top.
P.S. My rice noodles had brocolli and red peppers added to them because they were leftovers from my previous meal. :)
I love Kimchi Chigae and would take every opportunity to make some whenever I have kimchi around. Since my I made kimchi in my previous post, it's only natural to post a recipe in homage to the almighty kimchi! And there is nothing better than Kimchi Chigae to showcase the spicy umami flavors of this native Korean delicacy.
Kimchi Chigae is basically a stew made from kimchi and you can add anything you want in it. My kimchi is the vegetarian kind with soy beans, tofu, daikon radishes, rehydrated shitake mushrooms, carrots and a zucchini for good measure :P But normally, Koreans would add cubes of pork belly, beef, and seafood for protein - with cube pork belly as a preference.
So here's how I started my Kimchi Chigae and after step 1 you can proceed to add whatever you want as your protein and vegetables.
Kimchi Chigae (serves 4 or two very greedy people) 1/4 head of kimchi cabbage, chopped up into pieces 1/4 cup of kimchi juice 1/2 onion, diced 4 cloves of garlic, minced 5 square pieces of wakame seaweed 1 cup of daikon cubed 1 tablespoon Korean chili powder (optional) 1 teaspoon sugar 2 tablespoon soy sauce 6 cups of water (you can also use chicken broth)
I used: 8 slices of pan fried tofu, tied in twos with steamed green onions 1 medium sized carrot, cut into fingerlings 1/2 cup of fresh soy beans (basically edamame peeled) 1 small zucchini, diced 1/2 cup of rehydrated shitake mushrooms (soaked in cold water overnight)
1/2 teaspoon of roasted sesame oil
Method: Kimchi Chigae goes very well with rice so before you proceed, cook some rice to go with it first.
1. In a large lidded pan, put the chopped kimchi as the first layer on it's base and then pour the kimchi juice around the pan. Put in the seaweed slices, daikon cubes, onions, garlic, soy sauce, sugar and sprinkle the Korean chili powder around before pouring in 6 cups of water/broth in. Let it come to a simmer.
2. Once it starts to simmer, you can add your sesame oil in the pan and the rest of the ingredients. If you're using meat or seafood, now is the time to put it in. Put the lid on and let it cook for 10-15 minutes under medium heat.
3. Sprinkle some roasted sesame seeds over the top and serve with a bowl of hot rice.
I've been making my own kimchi since the start of this blog. The recipe I've been using has served it purpose of satisfying my cravings but it is far from authentic. What I mean by that is that the method used to preserved kimchi from this site is far from how it is traditionally done in Korea. Granted, I know many koreans who live overseas make-do with what they have. See previous kimchi recipe here - but I promise, this one new one is 100times better.
Recently, I've discovered this incredible Korean lady who cooks incredible korean fares on her blog, Maangchi.com :) And her kimchi recipe is the closest thing to the original method of making kimchi. I saw Anthony Bourdain's No Reservation: Korea and saw the whole kimchi making process - let me just say it is not as simple as just sprinkling chili powder on cabbages.
Watch minute 3.30 onwards :)
There is a thin roux-like base made from glutinous rice flour that needs to be prepared for the kimchi paste in which it would be used to bath the Chinese cabbage after it's been salted. It's the red chili goo you see Korean women smearing on vegetables before tucking the vegetables into clay barrels. The kimchi recipe I used called for me to chop the cabbages into 1 inch pieces first but apparently, according to my friend who lives with a Korean girl, this type of kimchi is considered low-grade kimchi as good kimchi comes in whole-halved (or quartered) cabbages - each leaf is stuffed with the kimchi paste.
Thanks to Maangchi, i have found the recipe for kimchi paste and it worked magnificently. In fact, it is better than the recipe I had tried before.
This is what I used:
2 large Chinese Cabbage 100grams of salt
Kimchi paste: 1 cup glutinous rice flour (or mochi flour) 2 cups water 1 cup sugar 1 cup fish sauce 2/3 cup of dry Korean chili powder, or more if desired 1 bulb of garlic, peeled 1 onion 2 inches ginger 1/2 cup shredded carrot 1 bunch of chinese chives (or Ong Choy in Chinese) 1/2 cup shredded daikon radish 10 pieces of fresh oysters (optional)
Method:
1. Wash and cut your Chinese cabbage length-wise into quarters, after that give these quartered cabbages a quick bath in water. It would help rinse out impurities from within the leaves and also help the salt to stick later on.
2. Peel each leaf from a quarter of the cabbage and sprinkle salt from the stem to the leaves of the cabbage. Put more salt on the stem as they are thicker. Repeat this for each leafy layer and until ALL the cabbages are salted. Leave them in a plugged basin and let the osmosis work its way through the cabbages for 4 hours. At the end of the 2nd hour, your cabbages should be quite wilted and water would have seeped out of the vegetable; now turn each cabbage quarter over and let them sit in their salty brine for the rest of hours.
3. While your cabbage is being salted to get rid of excess water, you can start making your kimchi paste. Combine glutinous rice flour and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Stir constantly and you will have a concoction that is similar to rice congee. When it is thick like that, turn off the heat and you can go to the next step.4. Add the fish sauce and stir to combine well, now you can add your chili powder in. Stir to mix the red paste into a nice amalgamated thick sauce.
5. In a food processor, add your ginger, garlic and onion and blitz until you get a nice paste. Add this into the red chili concoction and mix again. Once that is done, add the rest of the vegetables in and combine well. Now is the time to add your fresh oysters if you are using them. Mix well and your kimchi paste is done.
6. Your cabbage should have shrunk in size considerably by now and this step is rather important if you don't want to have an overly salty kimchi. You need to rinse the cabbage quarters 3 times to get rid of excess salt. Remember to squeeze all excess water out. Once this is done, you can move on to the next step where you spread the kimchi paste on each leaf of the cabbage.
7. Using your hands is vital in making good kimchi and there is really no other way to it. So with one hand peeling a leaf of cabbage and the other grabbing a handful of kimchi paste, smear the red paste on each leaf and repeat until ALL your cabbages are used.
Now, you can store your kimchi in containers and leave them in room temperature for 2 days until they ferment. You will know when your kimchi is fermented when it emits a sourish smell and maybe a fizzle can be hear when you open up the container to check :)
** if you have extra kimchi paste, store them in a bottle and use them as you would to season broths. Or make kakdugi, which is kimchi made from cubed daikon radish.
I tried eating kimchi freshly made as suggested by Maangchi and thought it was absolutely refreshing. But I still like the sourish taste of fermented kimchi more because I like sourish foods :)
You must give this recipe a try if you are a kimchi lover because once you know how to make your own kimchi, you never want to go store-bought again. And plus, as I have said previously, kimchi is incredibly versatile and tastes awesome in stir fries. But with my kimchi, I've made this:
I love having breakfast when I'm having breakfast. Unfortunately, since young, I was never big on breakfast not because I dislike breakfast fares but because I find it a fuss to get my elbows up in grease first thing in the morning. At times however, I do feel like treating myself to some good hot breakfast.
As a typical Malaysian, I would not stray far from roti canai or nasi lemak and a nice piping hot mug of teh tarik (or milo ais) when I am back home in Malaysia. In Canada, my breakfast runs from the usual bowl of cereal, mueslis to soft-boiled eggs to just a cup of coffee. And on days when I feel like good breakfast, I make myself a nice western style breakfast of 2 sausages, roasted tomatoes, 2 eggs sunny side up on a nice hot crispy toast. Other times, when my Asian tastebuds kick in, I go for a milder version of Dim Sum by steaming my own wrapped wontons. :)
This is my plate of breakfast, western-style: And this is my plate of wonton for breakfast: The western style breakfast is a very typical affair, you can pretty much figure out what I did by just looking at the plate. As for my wonton, it is made from my very own filling and the trick is the way the meat is minced. I got this tip from my granduncle who was fresh off the boat from China 50-60 years ago. He's long passed on but his culinary tips were as precious as the dried sharks' fin that were hung on the wooden pantry in his kitchen - it wasn't ethically incorrect to eat sharks' fin then. He was a master cook and worked as a chef in Chinese restaurants in before he came to Malaya to marry my grandmother's sister.
The way to mince the filling for wonton is really quite simple - NEVER FLIP THE MEAT OVER WHILE MINCING. Just mince the meat repeatedly in horizontal and vertical actions until the meat is, well, minced. Flipping it over would just mash the meat into goo and this would compromise the beady juicy texture of the minced meat, which plays a big part in taste when you pop these little pockets of joy in your mouth!
Throwing caution into the wind is imperative in making a good wonton filling. :) You will inevitably need a bit of pork fat to make this work. So the ration of 3:1 - 3 part pork tenderloin: 1 part pork fat is observed for a good filling. My granduncle would probably go as far as half and half but it's your prerogative.
For every 250grams of meat use 1tsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1/4 tsp white pepper powder, 3 tbsp of chopped green onions and 3 tbsp of chopped carrots. Another invaluable tip is to coat the green onions and shredded carrot with a teaspoon of cooking oil to prevent them from turning the filling watery. It would also keep the veggies crisp after the wonton is cooked - while it may seem insignificant, this tiny detail plays a huge part in the flavor profile of your wontons. :)
Here's the recipe for the wonton filling I am accustomed to:
350g tenderloin 150g fatty pork belly
Seasoning: 2 teaspoon sesame oil 2 tablespoon soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/4 cup of chopped green onions, coated with oil 1/4 cup of shredded carrots, coated with oil 1 egg 2 teaspoon corn starch
Method: 1. Minced the the tenderloin and pork belly together vertically and then turn the board 90degrees and start mincing again. DO NOT turn the meat over to mince as this will turn the mince pork into paste. We want nice tiny grains of pork that will hold the seasoning better.
2. Add the seasoning into the minced pork and mix well. You can now use the filling in wonton wrappers or roll them into a ball and make meatball soup.
What I do is make plenty of wonton in advance and then freeze them on a tray before packing them in a ziploc bag. It's such a convenient food to have around because all you need to do is boil some water, add a bit of chicken stock and dump in x-number of wontons. Dinner in 10 minutes.
I make vegetarian versions too and I replace meat for hard crumbled tofu and hydrated dried shitake mushrooms. The seasoning remains the same for the vegetarian version.
With the weather fluctuating between -3 to 9 degrees, I want nothing more than a nice cozy bowl of stew or soup for comfort. This lamb shanks stew is exactly the sort of comfort food my body's craving. I used a can of good ol' Budweiser for this but you can go ahead and use your favorite tap. My lamb shanks were season with rosemary, turmeric and cooked in mirepoix. Mirepoix is basically a base flavoring for soups and stocks used commonly in French cooking. It's made from three basic vegetable and they are onions, carrots and celery; the holy trinity in the French kitchen. These vegetables are then sauteed or boiled together to give a basic flavor base.
Quite frankly, I didn't know they called these three vegetables mirepoix till a few years back because my mom have always used these three vegetables in her soups and stews.
I bought frozen new zealand lamb shanks for this recipe.
Lamb shanks with rosemary and spices 500grams of lamb shanks 5 cloves of garlic, minced 2 tablespoon of chopped rosemary 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 1 can of Budweiser 2 cup of mirepoix, equal amounts of carrots, celery and onion, cut in equal sizes (it can be as small or as big) 1 zucchini, cut into 1inch chunks 1 potato, cut into 1 inch chunks 2 tablespoon olive oil 1tbsp of butter salt and pepper
Method: 1. Season your lamb shank pieces with salt and pepper. Heat a skillet or a pan with a 1 tbsp of olive oil. Once the pan and oil is hot, sear your lamb shank pieces until they are brown. This will help seal in the juices and create extra flavor in your stew. Set them aside. 2. In a medium size pot, add remaining 1tbsp of olive oil, 1tbsp butter and garlic. Turn heat up to medium high and saute the garlic for a few seconds before adding in your mirepoix mixture and potatoes. Continue sauteing until the vegetables softens and the onions become transparent. This will take approximately 8 minutes. 3. Add the seared lamb shank pieces and zucchini. Now, open your can of beer and pour the entire can in. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and a generous sprinkle of pepper. Stir the pot and let it come to a simmer.
4. Once the stew comes into a simmer, lower the heat to low and let it cook for 1 hour before serving it with a nice crusty bread.
5. Eat in front of the TV with a loved one and two cats.
