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Showing posts from April, 2018

Homemade Kimchi

I just realized that maangchi's blog has so many kimchi recipes. When I made my batch, I was referring to this one: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/napa-cabbage-kimchi Which is one of her earlier posting giving the portions to make both napa cabbage kimchi and radish kimchi ( kkakdugi). This other recipe for the traditional napa cabbage kimchi looks good as well. It has carrot matchsticks and half the amount of hot pepper flakes as the above recipe. Next time. https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/tongbaechu-kimchi/comment-page-1 I bought a small cabbage about 940g, so I adjusted the ingredient measurements by four. 2 large size napa cabbages (about 8 pounds: 3.6 kg) = 940g 2 Korean radishes (about 4-5 pounds: 2 kg) = 0.5kg 1.5 cup of kosher salt = as needed when salting the cabbage, maybe 4-5 tbsp 0.5 cup sweet rice flour, 0.25 cup sugar, 3 cups water = used glutinous rice flour, reduced all measures to a quarter 4 cups of hot pepper flakes = 0.75 cups of Korean chili paste +...

Edible Garden - Oki spinach and basil

An Edible Garden is fun as you can eat the fruits of your labour. I tried to plant Okinawan spinach from one cutting cut into 2 stems. Alas, the first stem died as I had planted it before rooting. I had read somewhere that it could be planted this way. Well, this did not work out for me. The second cutting fared better after some roots grew in the water first. Okinawan spinach from a friend. Made a salad with some of the leaves. 4 Mar 2018: Two cuttings in water. The leaf-less cutting survived 1-2 weeks in soil before it rotted. Those leaves at the side of the pot are Indian Borage leaves. I stuck them in there to suck up some water, because I had over-watered on some days. 22 Mar 2018: First planted. 3 Apr 2018 10 Apr 2018 14 Apr 2018 26 Apr 2018 Bought a pot of sweet basil from NTUC supermarket. Cut up the big basil leaves for a pasta. There were about 5-6 plants in this pot. 7 Apr 2018: In the original brown pot, t he long roots were ...

Really Ugly Savoury Chinese Pancake (glutinous rice flour)

Why are these really ugly Chinese pancakes? Because the dough was so sticky that I had a lot of trouble just getting the filling to be wrapped up than to worry how nice it would look. My original idea was to find a recipe to use up some of the glutinous rice flour that was bought to make onde-onde This one sounded promising. But I wanted a savoury snack, not a sweet one. So, I replaced the red bean paste with some mashed up chicken-potato curry that I had in the fridge. http://www.guaishushu1.com/glutinous-rice-flour-red-bean-pancake-%E8%B1%86%E6%B2%99%E7%83%A7%E9%A5%BC-%E7%B3%AF%E7%B1%B3%E7%9A%AE%EF%BC%89/ The ingredients to make the dough from the recipe above: 150 grams of plain water 30 grams of white castor sugar 2 tablespoons of cooking oil 150 grams of glutinous rice flour 30 grams of rice flour- optional Something went awry with my preparation. After boiling the first 3 items in a pot, there was too much flour for the liquid to handle. So, I poured in some wat...

Steak Adventures

There are steak lovers .. who rave about gourmet, premium cuts of of meat and how to cook it just right, medium rare or even less cooked. So, I wanted to learn how to cook steaks. Beginning my little cooking journey with supermarket steaks. Sirloin, surprisingly not at an exorbitant price. I suppose my taste is more Asian because I like the meat to be more cooked, towards the medium well or well done stage. A little bit of redness is fine but not too much for me. Alas, I will not be a steak connoisseur. First attempt: This steak was the thickest of my three attempts here. And the first piece to tell me that medium rare is not quite for me. Some people more experienced in cooking steaks tell me that they do not even season the meat when it is a nice, fresh piece. Salt, pepper, any sauces are optional after the meat is cooked. I spread some salt and pepper on a plate and then pressed each side of the steak onto it. Then heated some vegetable oil in the pan and fried each side...

Pulp Bread with yoghurt - sandwich delight

Made Pulp bread with yoghurt - juicing pulp comprising carrot and apple, about half a bowl - 3 tbsp yoghurt - 2 tsp instant yeast - 1 tsp salt - 2 cups of bread flour - water Started the dough at night so that it could have a slow rise in the refrigerator overnight. The texture and taste is usually better. And this bread has a lovely browning at the crust when pan fried with some olive oil. That is the time when you agree with the sandwich connoisseurs that "it is all about the bread" and the fillings, spreads are secondary. Sandwich with pate. The bread texture is even better after a few minutes on a hot pan with a bit of olive oil. Kneaded the dough at night. After first rise of 1 hour in room temperature. After first rise of 1.5 hour in room temperature. After overnight in the fridge. Shaping the loaf. Dust with semolina flour for the crust and cut the loaf. After 45 mins of rise. Baking at 230C for first 10-15 mins. ...