recipe

Noodlesoup? Won Ton and Sui Kau noodlesoup, homemade style!

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Damn, Still neglecting my blog posts and recipe’s…
To be honest I have been lazy.. to do the work.
I’ll try to keep it up and post on the days that I spoke off.

This week (last week) is the Chinese Noodle soup with homemade Won Ton and Sui Kau. Won Ton noodle-soup or the Sui Kau noodle-soup are one of the Cantonese staples of lunch items. It is a nice hot broth soup with noodles, some veggies and meat(or shrimp) dumplings. The dish got everything that you need Fat, Carbs and Proteins (maybe even vitamins), what more do you want? Joking aside, it is a noodle dish that warms you up and gets you through the day of “hard” work.

Ingredients:

Won Ton
250 grams of Pork Belly or Bacon
250 grams of Peeled Raw Shrimps
1 pack of Won Ton Pastry
1 Spring onion (other recipes have Shii-take mushroom)
Salt
Black Pepper
Sesame Oil
Soy sauce

Sui Kau
500 grams of Peeled Raw Shrimps
(some recipes has bamboo shoots)
1 pack of Won Ton Pastry
Salt
Black Pepper
Sesame Oil
Soy sauce

Noodle soup
1 pack of Egg noodles or Won Ton noodles
100 grams of Chinese Cabbage
4-5 Won Tons
4-5 Sui Kau’s
A few drops of Sesame oil
Some flavoured broth or stock (powdered or fresh)

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Making the Dishes:

Won Ton:
Rinse the spring onion with some water and chop it into fine bits and put it aside for later. Put 250 grams of Raw peeled Shrimps on a chopping board and bash the shrimps with the back of a chopping knife (or a kitchen mallet/hammer.) Fold the the flatten shrimps bash them again until it turns into a paste-like-substance. Do the same with the Pork belly/bacon. (if it is to time consuming, use a food-processor/mixer to mix/grind it into paste-like-structure.) After having the pork and the shrimp made into paste-like-substance, mix it all in a big bowl with the spring onion and season the mix with salt, pepper, sesame oil and a splash of soy-sauce. Use your clean hands or a spoon to mix it all up. Cover the bowl of won-ton-mix and refrigerate it for one hour in order to let the seasoning takes it effect.

After refrigerating the won-ton-mix for an hour take it out and get ready to fold the Won Tons. Take the pack of Won Ton pastry and the won-ton-mix. Grab a spoon to scoop up the won-ton-mix with one hand and put one piece of Won Ton pastry on the other hand. Put the won-ton-mix on the pastry and fold it semi-diagonal and seal the pastry around the mixture in a ripple/zigzag way.

Sui Kau:
Making Sui Kau is somewhat the same as making Won Ton. The difference is a shrimp paste mixture instead of pork/shrimp paste mixture. After refrigerating the Sui-Kau-mix fold it in the same way as the Won Tons.

Once you made a bunch, it can be boxed and frozen for whenever you like to cook up Won Ton or Sui Kau.

 

Noodle soup:

First set up two pans one a big pan and one smaller pan. The big pan is used to cook the ingredients to nearly done. The smaller pan is used to add the flavour of the broth or stock to the Noodle soup.
Pour enough water into the pan, so that they are half filled. Heat up the pans with water and let them boil. *(I used powdered instead of fresh broth, so that is why the small pan is also filled with water.)

Take the Chinese cabbage and chop an enough amount for use. (A whole cabbage can serve about 5-6 noodle soups.) Take the chopped off cabbage and wash it with water, after cleaning, put the cabbages into the boiling big pan and boil the cabbages till they are done. When the cabbages are cooked or done, take them out of the pan and set them aside.

Next are the Won Tons and Sui Kau’s. A total of 8-10 pieces is enough for one bowl of noodle-soup. The same as the Chinese cabbage boil it in the large pan. It takes around 5-10min until the Won Tons and Sui Kau’s are done. Normally you will see them float on the water when they are done cooking. When it is ready scoop them up and set them aside.

Get a noodle bowl and drop some sesame oil in it, then add the cabbages in the bowl. set it aside for now.

Take the Egg noodle (per portion) and cook it in the large pan for 1-2 min. So that it is just undercooked. (This is done to boil off the excessive flour or fat on the noodle)

Put in the powdered stock or broth into the smaller pan with the boiling water (Self made or fresh stock/broth can be used, but the smaller pan shouldn’t be filled with water beforehand.) Add the Cooked Won Tons and Sui Kau in the small pan. This is to warm them up and give them some more flavour. Next is to add the undercooked noodles to the smaller pan and cook it all to well done. When everything in the small pan is ready, pour it into the bowl with the cabbage. The bowl should be filled with cabbage at the bottom with noodles and the dumplings on top. The result will look like the picture on the front of this post.

Have fun trying it out! Like, share and Keep experimenting.

Diner for one from bits of leftovers!

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Everybody should know that it is rather hard to cook for one. Most of the time you have more ingredients to cook with or you make too much for one. That’s why at times you make a lot and have to eat it two days in a row. At other times you still have some leftover products, these leftovers can be used with creativity to create tasty and waste-less food. It is a way of trying new things out. Experimenting on new dishes that can be improved at a second attempt.

As for this recipe an easy-peasy ‘Filled bell pepper and potatoes for one.’

Ingrediënts:
1 red bell pepper
1 small onion
150grams of minced meat
4 small/medium sized potatoes
pepper and salt for seasoning

Wash the potatoes first, peel it with a knife or peeler and cut them afterwards into small cubes. Peel the onion and cut it into rings or half rings. (whatever the way you like it.) Rinse the bell pepper and roast it on an open flame. (the gas pit can be used as a source) Roast the bell pepper until it is firm and soft. Often the skin of the pepper will turn char black and hot to pick up. Then cut the top off and remove the seeds and other unedible parts of the pepper.

Heat up two frying-pans, one for the meat and one for the potatoes. In both pans add a tiny bit of oil. The first pan add the onion first to glaze them well and afterwards add the minced meat. Season the meat with some pepper and salt to your tasting and let it heat up in the pan while occasionally stirring. When done fill the sliced open Bell pepper with meat. In the second pan just fry the potatoes until they are golden brown and well done. (If you want it to be less fried just cover the pan with a lid and it will steam-fry/boil the potatoes. When everything is done plate it and serve.

I hope you like it. Like, share and keep Experimenting!

Eggsactly a breakfast item of bacon and eggs!

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The deliciousness of Eggs Benedict.

A breakfast item for after a long night’s out or for a hangover. It taste great, coz of the runny egg yolk, the salty but fatty bacon, the soft & toasty English muffin, and topping it all of with some hollandaise sauce.

It is even nice just as a breakfast item.

So here is what you need for my variant.

Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
2-4 slices of bacon
1-2 slices of cheddar cheese
1/4 of a lemon
1-2 slices of bread
vinegar

Toast the bread with a toaster or on a pan. Cook the bacon on a pan until it is a bit crispy brown. When both things are done put it aside.

Hollandaise sauce; Boil a pan with water on the stove. Separate two egg yolks and put it into a bowl. Squeeze out the lemon onto the yolks and put the whole bowl on top of the pan with water. (au bain-marie style) Now stir the egg yolk and the acidic lemon juice until you get a nice sauce like consistency. It might take some tries to get it perfect. If the bowl gets too hot, you get scrambled eggs and if it is not hot enough you get raw egg yolk. Also stirring too hard/long the sauce will split and if not enough it will be runny. When it is done put the pan and the bowl aside on low heat for keeping it warm.

Poached eggs; Boil a pan with water add some vinegar to it. Take a mug and crack an egg into it. Spin the boiled water in the pan with something you can stir it with. While the water is spinning lower the mug with the egg into the pan. This will create a roundish/oval poached egg. Use a small sieve to spoon up the excessive egg whites. I takes about 2-3 minutes to have poached egg, firm on the outside and runny yolk on the inside. When ready let it dry off the excessive water on some kitchen paper.

Assemble time: (from bottom to top)
Toasted bread
Slice of cheddar cheese
Crispy bacon slices
Poached egg
A layer of Hollandaise sauce.

Don’t take too long to make it, coz it the best when it is still warm.

Like, share and keep experimenting!

Chickenwings: Double flavour, in triple ways!?!

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Chicken-wings a snack-food at various occasions. At the BBQ with grilled meat, or when sharing pizza’s with friends, even when getting fast food like fried chicken.

There was a video on Vice.com about paleo method of cooking and I saw chicken and herbs used. It looked interesting and I like to experiment with cooking.  I also enjoy crunchy fried chicken-wings, thus thats why I tried something new.  So here are my ways of chicken-wings done in three ways.

Spicy crusted Chicken-wings:

Ingredients:
400-500 grams or 8-10 pieces of Chicken-wings
10 ml of Sesame oil (optional)
5 grams of Salt
5 grams of Black pepper
10 grams of Chili powder
12 grams of Paprika powder
20-30 grams of Bread-crumbs

Preparation:
Rinse the chicken-wings with water and put it in a bowl. Add the sesame oil, salt, black pepper and 2-3 grams of chili powder as well as 2-3 grams of paprika powder. Use a spoon or your clean hands to marinate the spices onto the chicken-wings. When done leave it to rest for 30 min in the refrigerator for the flavour to soak in.

Next get a plate or a container and pour the bread-crumbs, 10 grams of paprika powder and 8 grams of chili powder. (Add chili powder with caution, cause the spiciness depends on the amount of chili you add.) Mix the powders and the bread-crumbs together for a red-orange-yellowy crust-mix.

After 30 min of flavouring, get the chicken-wings out of the fridge and dip the wings one for one or a few at a time in the crust-mix. Cover the wings fully and put it aside on a plate.

Green herbed Chicken-wings:

Ingredients:
400-500 grams of 8-10 pieces of Chicken-wings
20 grams of Celery (herb)
20 grams of Leaf parsley
20 grams of Spring onion**
5-10 ml of Olive oil
Handful of nuts (used pine nuts*)

*(Because I had some of it left over. Other kinds of nuts could be: Pistachio, Walnut, Peanuts, Cashew or whatever you like)
(**Only the green parts of the spring onion were used).

Preparation:
Wash the herbs: celery, leaf parsley and spring onion. Also rinse the chicken-wings with water. Get a food-blender and cut the herbs into pieces for blending. Put the herbs into the blender as well as the olive oil and a handful of nuts. Blend the herb-mixture into small pieces in a way that is not to chunky or to pasty looking.

Use a spoon to scrape of the herb-mix into a bowl and add the chicken-wings in it to marinate. Like above use a spoon or your clean hands to marinate the herb-mix onto the chicken-wings and let it soak in the fridge for 30min. Take it out when you are ready to cook it.

IMG_2922

As stated in the title chicken-wings in three ways, I made these chicken-wings in just one way. However after tasting the wings, I have thought up and considered two other ways of making it more tasty. So for each chicken-wing recipe are two ways to cook it.

The baking method: (spicy crusted wings and green herbed wings)
Preheat the oven at 160 degree Celsius. Put the chicken-wings after preparation on a grilled like tray for the oven. When the oven is heated and ready, put the tray with the chicken-wings in the oven and let it bake for 30 min. When it is done, serve it hot. (Make or add some dipping sauce for the wings. For the green herbed wings, I made some honey-lime dip for some bit of sweetness. As for the spicy crusted wings, I would have liked garlic sauce.)

The BBQ or grilling method: (green herbed wings)
Make these green herbed wings for a barbecue and if you want to make it at home use a grill pan. Heat up a grill pan on the stove and put the prepared chicken-wings on the pan when the pan is heated. Grill the green herbed wings on the pan and turn the wings a few times over. I takes about roughly 10-15 minutes or until the wings are golden brown/ yellowy brown. Serve, when done with or without sauce.
(For the BBQ, I would mix a little honey-water and brush it onto the wings when it is nearly done.)

The frying method: (spicy crusted wings)
Caution: While frying food it can be dangerous, the oils are very hot.

Use a fryer or pan with oil. Boil the oil to 170-180 degree Celsius. When the oil is heated, gently add a few chicken-wings into the hot oil. Let the wings fry until the crust becomes firm and golden brown. It takes about 4-6 minutes to cook the wings throughly. After the first batch of wings is done, take them out and let it drip out the oil on a sieve and in a bucket. Gently put the second batch of wings in the hot oil.
When the wings are done dripping out, put it on a kitchen-paper-layered plate and let the chicken-wings rest for further oil absorption. (Only do this if you are health conscious.) Serve when still hot.

I hope you like it, try it out and have fun experimenting!

DIY Chocolate Ice-cream… with out Ice-cream-maker!

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Although it is often easier to buy your Ice-cream in store, I have to try to make my own ice-cream. This is all due to an upcoming dessert I want to make from scratch. (It takes some time to freeze it, so do not expect to have it on the same day)

The only problem I noticed is, that my ice-cream is not that smooth as the ones you buy from store. There are two factors which makes your ice-cream as smooth as silk. The first one is the amount of fat used in making your ice-cream, the higher percentage the smoother it will be. The second factor is crystallization of the liquid, if you put the ice-mix in a container and freezing it, it won’t create the same smooth texture as store-bought-ones but rather more popsicle-ish like.
Smoothness is created through breaking and forming of small ice-crystals, which happens normally in an ice-cream-maker by churning the ice-mixture.

So enough with the technical stuff, on to the recipe.

DIY chocolate ice-cream.

200ml of Chocolate ‘whole’ milk (around 10% fat content)
250ml of Cream (whipping cream 30% fat content)
100gr of Sugar
100gr of Dark Chocolate
1 shot of Espresso (or Ristretto)
2 Egg yolks
Oreo cookies

Break up the dark chocolate bar (or use chocolate chips) and put it into a pan. Add the sugar as well as the Chocolate milk to the pan. Start heating up the pan and dissolve the chocolate and the sugar by stirring. Do not let the mixture boil. Continue to gradually add the cream in the mix and stir it well.
After the cream is added also add the shot of Espresso and stir the pan while heating the mixture. Remove the pan off the heat when the mix is nearly boiling. (when small bubbles starts to appear)

After taken the pan of the heat, whisk the egg yolks lose (so it is not a round blob anymore) and add the egg yolks while stirring it into the mixture. Stir it well to dissolve it like the sugar and chocolate. When done get a small sieve and strain the mixture, to separate the undissolved residue and the liquid ice-cream.

Let the liquid ice-cream cool down a bit before putting it into the freezer. When it cooled down put the ice-cream mix into the freezer for 12 hours.
Top the ice-cream with crumbled Oreo cookies when it is frozen and finally enjoy.

The BLT Pasta Salad

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Who ever thought that Salads are just for people losing weight are surely mistaken.

Every once in a while I like to make a meal-time salad. When I want something not that heavy on the stomach, but also delicious and easy to make. This recipe is something I consider as a balanced meal, almost everything what you need is in it.

Ingredients: (for 1-2 person)
100-150gr of Pasta (Penne)
75-150gr of Greens (Lettuce, Arugula or any lettuce types)
200gr of Tomato (Cherry)
200gr or 20 pieces of Mini Mozzarella
250gr or 1 pack of Bacon bits
5-10gr of Pine nut
1 pinch of Salt
2tbls or 30ml of Honey
1 whole Lime
1 clove of Ginger

Take a pan large enough to cook the pasta in it. Fill the pan with enough water for cooking the penne. Average 1L per 100gr pasta. When the pan with water is boiling add the pasta and a pinch of salt. Cook for 20 min until it is ready. When ready drain the water from the pasta and set it aside.

While the pasta is cooking, take a frying-pan and heat it up. Once warm put the fire on low-heat and roast the pine nuts until golden. This takes just a few minutes. Set the roasted nuts aside and bake the bacon bits. I like my bacon to be a bit crunchy, so it take at least 5 minutes to have a crunchy outside and soft inside. When the bacon is ready drain the oil from the bacon and set it aside on a plate with a paper towel to absorb some of the fat still on it.

Wash the Greens and Tomatoes, fling of the water on the greens. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. When done add everything in a bowl, the pasta, the greens, the tomatoes, the mini mozzarella, the bacon bits and the pine nuts. It is almost done, only the sauce or dressing left before tossing it. The salad or better shake the salad up.

The sauce is easy to make. Only the juice of the ginger is needed to give it a nice zing to the flavour, it’s optional.

Peel the ginger clove, grate the ginger in to pulp and sieve the juices out of the pulp. Take a sauce pan warm it up, add 2 tablespoons of Honey (add more if you like it sweeter or stickier), squeeze out the lime juice into the honey. Optional add ginger juice to the pan and stir the mix till it becomes fluid.

Now add the dressing to the Salad mix and mix it up so everything is drenched with the sweet, fresh and spunky sauce.

Serve immediately.

Home made Pork / Beef Jerky (Asian style)

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One of my favorite snacks and most of the time it’s only obtainable in Asia. The freshly made meat jerky in Asia are just juicy, smoky and certainly delicious. They have it in variants of Chicken, Beef and Pork and in different flavours.

However it is hard to come by when you are living on the other side of the world. If you don’t know it yet. When flying to Asia back and forth, meat products are prohibited as souvenir to take back with. On some occasions it is possible for me to enjoy the meat jerkies from Asia, when relatives or friends with gifts pass through the customs.

In recent weeks I saw a FB videopost about a DIY homemade meat jerk and today I thought why not do it myself. So I watch the video of a youtuber and noted down the recipe, gathered the ingredients and made it myself.

I followed her recipe and changed bits of the ingredients.

ingredients: (Pork)
450-500 gram grounded meat (Pork)
100 gram sugar
2tbls or 30ml Fish sauce
1.25tbls or 20ml Soy sauce
1.25tbls or 20ml Dark Soy sauce
1.5tbls or 25ml Cooking wine
5 gram Five spice powder
2 gram Ginger powder

Honey

Preheat the oven at 150 degree Celsius.
Add the sugar, the sauces, the wine and the powders all in a bowl and mix it all together. When done, add the grounded pork in pieces to the sauce mix. Yet, again mix the meat and sauce mix until it becomes a paste-like-substance.

Lay out a baking sheet on a tray, put some meat-paste on the sheet, cover the paste and the tray with some transparent foil. Take a rolling pin and roll out the meat paste on the tray. Roll the paste evenly in 3mm thickness. remove the foil and put the plate in the preheated oven of 150 degree Celsius. Bake it 15min

After the first 15min get it out and pour out the excessive liquids and flip it over for an other 15min oven time. In the mean time whip up some honey water. Put a tablespoon of honey in a bowl and add some water. Mix it up until the honey is dissolved.

After the second 15min get the jerky out. Polish the jerky with some honey water and put it back into the oven for 4-5min at 180 degree Celsius. Do this again but by flipping it over and honey-water the jerky on the other side. After the second 4-5min, Get it out and enjoy your Homemade Pork/Beef Jerky.

ps. For Beef see below.

ingredients: (Beef)
450-500 gram grounded meat (Beef)
100 gram sugar
2tbls or 30ml Fish sauce
1tbls or 15ml Soy sauce
1tbls or 15ml Oyster sauce
2tbls or 30ml Cooking wine
0.5tbls or 7ml Sesame oil
7 gram black pepper powder
Honey