Kimchi Fried Rice

This is an other awesome recipe from one of my favourite YT channels Aaron and Clare. When I go into our Asia Go Supermarket, I always stock up on fresh kimchi in the fridge section of the market. When these bags are a bit longer at home in my fridge, they get more sour. But I love this too.

I had leftover rice from my Gung Penang and it was sitting in the fridge. A unopened bag of kimchi just beside it. Then I watched the newest YT video and knew I had to make that recipe next. LIDL hat pork belly on offer and I bought it yesterday on my way home.

Spring onions are a staple in my household and all kinds of sauces that are needed for this dish. Aarons finishing touch with roasted seaweed is awesome. I have these snack packages too.

recipe for 1 or 2:

170 g pork belly, 100 g kimchi, 2 spring onions, 1 tsp oil, 1 bowl cold rice, 3 tbsp water

sauce: 1 1/2 tbsp gochugaru hot pepper flakes, 1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp rice syrup or sugar

1 tsp sesame oil, 1 - 2 fried eggs, 1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds, 3 seaweed snacks   

Start with the pork belly slices and cook them until nearly done. Get them out and cut them up into strips. Back into the pan. Chop the green onions and keep some of the greens for garnish. Put the other into the pan and crank up the heat. Add a tiny bit of oil.

Take the kimchi into a ceramic or glass bowl and cut it up. Pour to the meat and stir well. In with the cold rice. Let it take heat and color.

Now is time to add the sauce. If it is a little to dry, add water and cook it out. That prevents burning.  

Keep stirring. Finish with a little sesame oil. In a second pan fry the eggs. Put all into a bowl, top with egg, green onion and sesame seeds and seaweed.

What a tasty dish, I loved it.

Mömax Cream Cake

I went out to order a new kitchen. Mx old one is outdated and does not have enough storage space.

At had an apointment at one of our local furniture stores. But there was some kind of hold up and I got a free coffee and cake out of it.

The furniture store has a nice restaurant with outdoor seating on the second floor. 

Their signature cream cake is called after the store name. It has apricots and and a strawberry flavoured cream on different layers. 

Pretty nice.

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Penang Curry with Prawns or Gung Penang

No grocery shopping today or the last few days. I am still cooking from stuff in the fridge and freezer and my dry store cupboard.

I have a couple of Thai curry paste packages bound together with a rubber band. I went through it to look for an idea. Most packages had chicken as the prefered meat mentioned on the backside. The Penang paste listet chicken and prawns. 

Frozen prawns are a staple in my freezer. While I was down in the basement to get some out of the bag, I took a hand full of frozen peas out of an other bag as well. No hassle to get a "balanced" meal on the table.

Recipe for 1:

8 - 10 black tiger prawns defrosted and peeled, 1 Penang curry paste bag

1 red chili, 3 tbsp roasted unsalted peanuts, 2 tsp peanut butter, 3 tsp palm sugar

1 tsp coconut oil, 200 ml coconut cream,  3 tbsp defrosted peas, juice 1/2 lemon

 

Mozzarella Polenta with Air Fryer Veggies

Veggies and Mozzarella had to be cooked today. I had absolutely no idea. The Monsoon weather in the moment called for something comforting and warm. A salad was out.

I collected different  kinds of veggies. Bell pepper, kohlrabi, red onion, spring onion, purple and orange carrot, garlic.

1 ball mozzarella, some creme fraiche and butter and good quality veg stock, smoked sea salt

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika, herbes de Provence, olive oil.

Cut all veggies in bite size chunks, season and toss them in oil. Put in the air fryer for 10 min at 180C.

Heat up 400 ml veg stock and add 1 tsp butter to it. Stir in 100 g Polenta and stir and cook for 4 - 5 min on low. Add 2 tsp creme fraiche. Cut the mozzarella in small cubes. Stir in halve of the cubes and let them melt. Gradually add the rest and stir. You will have a nice cheese pull. Season to taste.

Spread on a plate and top with roasted veggies

Ham and Pistachio Sauce with Ravioli

Sometimes you need some ready made ravioli. I bought some in France. Ravioli au Boeuf with Timut Pepper.  But eating them cooked only in broth is boring. I needed some sauce to go with them.

A small bag of roasted pistachios was just over its expiration date. Since nuts can get rancid, I tried a couple of them and they were still good. Pistachios in sauces with pasta is a thing you can find on Sicily. I remembered that and the bag of ravioli sitting in my fridge. I came across the package of cooked ham in the fridge too. 

The sauce was pretty basic. Just some shallots, ham, pistachios, wine and cream and some seasoning.

Recipe for 2:

250 g ready made ravioli with beef filling, 2 beef stock cubes

2 shallots, 3 slices of cooked ham, 1 tbsp butter, 40 g pistachios crushed, 3 tbsp creme fraiche, 50 ml wine

Salt, pepper, smoked, paprika, dried thyme and chili flakes, parsley for garnish

Cut the shallots into rings. Melt the butter in a pan and give the shallots 4 min. Cut up the ham and toss it in. After 3 more min add the pistachios and the wine. Let it cook down a little. Season and finish with creme fraiche.

The ravioli will only need a few minutes in the broth. Add them with a little broth to the pan. Stir and garnish with parsley.

Pudding Rice with Ritter Sport Coffee Chocolate

Many people think that rice puddings are boring or only know the ones sold in the dairy isle of the supermarkets.

That is not true. Rice puddings can be comfort food, warm and rich and tasty.

I use rice puddings some times to get rid of chocolates that are sitting in my ceramic bowl on the living room table. I am not eating chocolates often. Sometimes one or two chunks and then the other pieces get old. Giving them an other purpose is great. 

For this sweet treat I used Carneroli risotto rice. It keeps its structure and has a better mouth feel for me.

Recipe for 4 smaller bowls:

800 ml whole milk, 180 g risotto rice, 30 g butter, 50 g coconut sugar

1/2 lemon juiced, 1 egg yolk, 50 g coffee chocolate Ritter Sport, 2 tsp instant hot chocolate powder

Melt the buttet in a pot and coat the rice in for 2 min. Add milk and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, add the sugar and cook 25 min or until the rice is done. Add chopped chocolate  and a bit of lemon juice and stir in the egg yolk.

Pour in serving bowls and sprinkle with hot chocolate powder.

 

 

Food Court Food -Japanese

Since Yesterday the stalls at the Food court at a large shopping Mall LOOP 5 near by are allowed to serve customers in house. All the month before only Take Out was availabe.

I went for a quick lunch there, because I had an hairdresser apointment at noon at the Mall. The well known Fast Food chains are all there to serve customers, but I wanted something else. There are 3 Asian food stalls. One Thai, one generic Asian and one Japanese: Hikari.

The last one was my choice today. Gyoza and Udon Noodle Soup with Tempura sounded good.

I ordered and was surprised. 5 deep frozen white pieces of Gyoza went into the fryer. My green tea came from a jar with powder, no tea bag and the most interesting was the soup for my Udon noodles.

The Hikari food stall offers Miso Soup. They used two servings of this soup, thrown in frozen seafood, 1 prawn and some tiny mussels and octopus pieces. Then the ready to go Udon pressed into a package. The same one I use at home. One Tempura shrimp went into the fryer.

When you are loving Japanese food and been to Japan twice I can not recommend this place.  The best of my Gyoza was the sweet chili sauce from a bottle. The Gyoza did not do their name any good. Soggy and still white all around.

If you like Miso soup, just eat that and skip the rest. The green tea was powder and boiling water.

When I came back home, I was hungry and stuffed some Nems wit crab filling my air fryer. I bought them in France and they were a lot better them my lunch that day.

 

 

Coquelet or Springchicken

On my grocery shopping haul in France I stumbled over some tiny chickens at the meat counter st the supermarket. They looked to small to eat. But I accepted the challenge and bought one.

I wanted to prepare it in the air fryer.

The size is small enough to fit into the basket. Now I needed some idea how to season it. On Pinterest I found one. Spread a good amount of medium hot mustard all around the chicken and set 2 sprigs of rosemary on top. I seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper outside and inside. For additional flavour I added 2 leaves of my Australian lemon leaf from my balcony. 

The air fryer has a special setting for chicken. I use it for wings and drumsticks. The small sized bird went in at the same setting. But after the initial 25 min at 200C were over, the juices did not run clear.

I turned it over and gave it an other 8 min and it was done. So 33 min at 200 C did the trick.

 

 

Chilaquiles rojos con huevo

I saw YouTuber Mikey Chen eat Chilaquiles at a fancy hotel in Las Vegas. He raved about the Mexican dish.

That made me curious and I checked some history and recipes online. That is basically a dish with leftover tortillas and everything but the kitchen sink. My kind of cooking!

Usually eaten in Mexico for breakfast or Brunch. Using up the homemade tortillas from the day before.

But the use of a bag of tortilla chips is a good alternative, even in Mexico.

There are two different versions, a red or a green sauce as the base.

My version contains defrosted homemade tomato sauce, some chili and cumin added for additional spice.

Recipe for 1:

1 1/2 cup spiced up tomato sauce

2-3 hands full of tortilla chips salted

1 bell pepper, 1/2 red onion, 1 spring onion, 1 avocado, 2 tbsp parsley, oil

1/4 cooked chicken breast, 2 tbsp grated mozzarella cheese, 1 tomato, 1 fried egg

Cut the onions in strips, the bell pepper in bite size chunks and saute them in oil for 8 - 10 min. Add the shredded chicken breast to heat through again.

Peel the avo and cut that and the tomato in chunks. Roughly chop the parsley. Fry the egg in oil. Heat up the tomato sauce.

Toss the tortilla chips in a larger bowl and pour the tomato sauce on top. Gather the other ingredients and set them on top. Finish with cheese and a fried egg on top.

 

 

Rice with Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce

I bought a package of Champignon de Paris in France last Saturday. They needed to be eaten. The French name sounds so much nicer then a package of button mushrooms.

I wanted a vegetarian lunch and mushrooms have enough umami to make it tasty. This is a 15 min meal to eat while working from home. Do not count the time of your rice cooker or use cold leftover rice. 

The mushrooms were nearly a week old. Storing the in the veggie drawer of my fridge helped with the shelve life. Or they had great quality.

Recipe for 1:

250 g mushrooms, 2 spring onions, 1 garlic clove, 1 tbsp olive oil, 3 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 50 ml Noillly Prat, 3 tbsp parsley, pepper, dried thyme

1 cup rice cooked in veg stock.

Start with the mushrooms in a hot pan with oil and butter. Let them cook a while, then add onions and garlic. Season and add Noilly Prat. Now put in oyster sauce and soy sauce and finish with 2 tbsp of butter and parsley.

You can either serve it over rice or heat up cold rice in the sauce.

 

Artichoke Hearts with sweet Chili Dip

Artichoke Hearts cut out from fresh huge artichokes is no fun. You will produce a large amount of waste.

You will need a strong bread knife, a pairing knife, 1 lemon halve and a bowl of water. If ou hate to stain your hands, use gloves. Now the fun starts. Break off the stem by pressing it down over the edge of the kitchen counter or a table.

Take the bread knife and saw around the bottom parts of the leaves and cut the last stem bit off. Now cut off the upper half of the artichoke and pull off the outer leaves. The thin leaves in the middle come away easy.

Take a pairing knife and remove the hay from the bottom by cutting it away. When the heart is clean drizzle it with lemon juice and put it into lemon water.

Bring salted water to a boil and add 2 tbsp of cider vinegar. Cook the hearts until tender. Between 5 to 8 min depending on the size.

Mix creme fraiche and sweet chili sauce for the dip.

Museau de Boeuf Salad 2.0 with Fish Sauce and Capers

My first recipe of this salad is a runner on this blog (16.04.2016). I never thought there are so many people around who eat the strangely textured meat shaved of the inner side of a mouth of a cow. 

We have here in Hessian a sausage called Schwartemagen. That is a blatter of a pig filled with head meat and other pig parts you wont see otherwise. Smoked it is a delicous sausage. But I love it cooked too.  This museau de boeuf reminds me of it.

My old recipe is very traditional. The idea for the new one I found on Google. Just the 2 ingredients of  Thai fish sauce and salty capers caught my eye. 

Recipe for 2:

350 g museau de boeuf

1/2 red onion, 1 white onion, bunch of parsley, 3 tbsp salted capers ( not in brine)

4 gherkins, 1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard, 5 tbsp oilve oil, 3 tbsp white balsamic vinegar,

1 1/2 tbsp Thai fish sauce, pepper

Cut the onions into strips and put them into a sieve and pour boiling water over them. Cool down. Chop the capers, gherkins and parsley. Make the dressing and mix everything with the sliced meat. Put in the fridge for 30 min.

Serve with baguette.

Red Velvet Waffles

I never thought this batter needed so much red food coloring!

Sunday afternoon waffles are a good choice. Bake some more and you have some for the next day to enjoy. I served them with some kind of foamy vanilla liquid.

Recipe for 4:

2 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tbsp Cameroon red cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cup buttermilk, 2 large eggs, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 1/ 3 cup melted butter, 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar, 2 tbsp red food coloring

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl.

Whisk the wet ingredients together. Stir them into the dry stuff

Now add the food coloring and stir and stir until fully combined.

Bake in a waffle iron