mycookerygarden

Now that I have decided that I prefer cabbage kimchi to radish kimchi, it's time to make another batch. This time following more closely to the Korean recipes and not adding 'extras' like anchovy paste and gochujang. My first attempt: http://applechoc1.blogspot.sg/2017/09/spicy-pickled-cabbage-wongbok-ala-kimchi.html This second attempt is still based on this recipe: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/yangbaechu-kimchi 700g of wongbok cabbage, cut into pieces 2 tablespoon of salt to 'marinate' the cut cabbage for 1 hour, then wash and dry (I used a salad spinner) Half a carrot, grated 1 pack of green onions (100g) Kimchi Marinade: 3 teaspoon of chili powder 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1 teaspoon of minced ginger 1 teaspoon of sugar 1 small apple, grated Fish sauce, to taste (start with 2 tablespoons) 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce Mixing the vegetables with the sauce. Apple grating for natural sweetness. Over ambitious - squeezed all th...

26 Sep 2017 This is my umpteenth attempt to plant ginger in a pot. Maybe, fifth or sixth attempt. There was one pot that I managed to grow lots of green leaves but there were no ginger roots (rhizome). Finally, the plant died as well. Now, this ginger was rooted in Aug 2017 .. let's see if this ginger plant will survive or not. 11 Sep 2017 15 Sep 2017: Ants (or mites?) in the soil. Dusted some cinnamon powder - supposedly ants don't like it. 26 Sep 2017

I made a lasagna- moussaka hybrid sometime ago and learnt a few lessons from there. http://applechoc1.blogspot.sg/2017/08/lasagna-moussaka-hybrid.html This is a light lasagna, possibly low fat too, even with the beef in it because there is no bechamel sauce and the cheese grating is done sparingly. For a stronger tasting version, add some stock liquid or a stock cube to the meat sauce and grate more cheese for each layer. Eggplant lasagna Lasagna - 11 sheets (from a Barilla 250g box containing 20 sheets) Beef sauce: 300g minced beef 1 onion 3-4 stalks of celery 2 tbsp tomato paste 4 tomatoes 1 carrot 2 cloves of garlic, minced Juice pulp (optional) - mainly carrot with some apple pulp - this will help thicken the sauce a little bit Salt, pepper and herbs (Oregano, etc), according to taste 1 cup of water or more, according to thickness of sauce   3 eggplants (Pearl Brinjals from Malaysia) Cheese - for grating over the layers   Ingredients When...

Bread time again! Olive bread this time as I have a bottle of black olives from making Salad Nicoise. Olive bread 2 cups of flour (mixed in about half cup of all-purpose flour as I had insufficient bread flour) 1 teaspoon of instant yeast (only 1 tsp because this dough is intended for a slow rise in the fridge overnight and beyond .. about 20 hours, from first night's preparation to the next night's baking) 10 olives, sliced (this brand of USA olives are not as salty or flavorful as the European olives) 1 teaspoon of salt (reduced because of salty olives) 0.5 cup of water (and a bit more .. adjust for flour type and addition of olives) This is a two-day bread preparation and baking. It is not tedious once you plan your schedule. Slow rise bread has a nicer texture and stays soft longer. Mix all the ingredients together and knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is s prings back when poked with a finger. Keep the dough a little on the wet side as the texture w...

Update 29 Sep 2017 21 Sep 2017 After eating the spicy pickled cabbage for the last few days, I was so inspired to make some radish kimchi (kkakdugi). Based on these 2 recipes: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kkakdugi https://mykoreankitchen.com/korean-cu bed-radish-kimchi-kkakdugi/ Using Malaysian radish. Hope it turns out fine. Main ingredients from local supermarket. Decided to follow the maangchi's kkakdugi recipe as there are less steps and ingredients with the seasoning. I had a lot more spring/green onions (in proportion to the recipe) but decided to add them all in as I usually look for the greens in the kimchi. Chopped half of them and left the rest 1-inch long. The small bowl on the right contains the juice from the radish cubes, marinated with salt and sugar, after 1 hour. The Korean hot pepper flakes versus local chilli powder which I used about 2 flat teaspoon. I suspect if using The Korean hot pepper flakes, the amount will be more and the color mo...

Updated 17 Sep 2017 13 Sep 2017 I am hesitating to call this dish "kimchi" as the ingredients for the paste has been improvised so much as to seem quite alien to Korean cuisine. Well, the inspiration is still the kimchi dish and from one really cutely-named "Emergency Kimchi" recipe from the Maangchi website. Inspired by this recipe: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/yangbaechu-kimchi Kimchi is supposed to be made and fermented for some time. So, being able to make a pickle that can be eaten immediately is a good standby recipe to know. For the small cabbage that I had, I cut it up, soaked it in water with 1.5 tbsp of salt for about 20-30 mins. Then, rinsed it a few times with cold water. I used a salad spinner to dry the cut cabbage. This part is still close enough to the recipe steps. It is the sauce that is different. I used garlic, ginger, sugar, chilli powder, anchovy paste. I was very careful with the chilli powder as I suspect that chilli p...

Leftover a small head of cabbage, a bunch of English parsley and an egg in the fridge. Stir-frying cabbage is so boring. So, I decided to make okonomiyaki. Based on this recipe: https://www.japancentre.com/en/recipes/1-okonomiyaki-savoury-pancake From the recipe, for the batter's ingredients, I needed to improvise for the first item - okonomiyaki flour . I knew I was going to overload on the cabbage and was going to replace the spring onion with parsley. Anyway, having more vegetables in my diet is good. Ingredients from the recipe, for the batter: 100g okonomiyaki flour 100ml water 1 egg 1/4 cabbage 1 spring onion Improvisation: I added about 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of chicken seasoning powder to all purpose flour to substitute for the okonomiyaki flour. I should have made more flour batter as there were a lot of vegetables. Luckily, the pan helped to shape the pancake and hold it all together. I needed a plate to do the flipping, though. Can on...

I'm really loving my favorite cook book "Cooking - A Commonsense Guide". I picked it up by chance a few years ago due to a bookshop coupon. But what a gem. The recipes are very 'usable' and the how-to steps and explanations are great information. I like Salad Nicoise because I love the slim green beans (haricot vert) - the crunchy fresh taste and how it looks so good in a salad - and the potatoes and the whole combination of salty fish and tangy mustard. For this particular recipe, I omitted the archichoke hearts, fresh tarragon and canned tuna . The former two are not usual ingredients that we stock and a miss on the tuna because the other dishes for dinner were meaty - salad was kept on the lighter side. Additionally, used way less than the 350g of salad leaves specified in the recipe. I think the recipe's portions are meant for a full meal. Random arrangement for dinner table Salad Nicoise Lunch Page from "Cooking - A Commonsense Guide...