Korean barbecue sauce

It is real easy to buy sauce at the supermarket, it looks complicated to make your own... but these few years I start making different cuisine of different countries, I have lots of spices and ingredients at home. So now I start making my own sauce.

Actually Korean sauce consists of general ingredients, you may have them sitting at home but you didn't realize it! 
Try to make it once and then you'll understand why you no longer want to buy them in the supermarket :) 

It is healthier - without any preservatives... you can also make any quantity you want by multiplying the ingredient portions.
You can use this sauce for fried or stew, even as the name barbecue!

Ingredients
3 cloves garlic
2" fresh ginger
2 stalks scallions

1 tbsp sesame seed

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup Asian (Chinese) pear juice/purée
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp sesame oil
black pepper

Instructions
1. Chop finely garlic & ginger

Sliced finely scallions, white & green part

Crush sesame seeds in a mortar & pestle to release the flavor

2. Mix everything together

You can use it right away or store it in an air-tight container for a week

Enjoy!

Creamy mushroom soup

Sometimes I just want to make something simple, so soup is good. It is easy, fast and yummy.

Ingredients
2 tbsp unsalted butter

3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced

250g mushroom

3 carrots
2 stalks celery

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 cup flour
4 cups chicken stock
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup half & half*

* half & half = half portion of cream + half portion of milk

Instructions
1. Thinly slice mushroom, peel and dice carrots & dice celery

2. In a Dutch oven at medium heat, melt butter
Add in garlic, onion, mushroom, carrot & celery, stir well
Let it cook until tender, about 4-5 mins

3. Add in thyme and let it cook for 1 min or until you smell the fragrance

4. Whisk in flour, stir with all vegetables, stir well
Add in chicken stock & bay leaf, let it cook, stir regularly, until it is thickened a bit (about 5mins)

5. Add in half & half , bring it to boil
Season with salt and pepper if necessary

If the soup becomes too thick, add more half & half until the consistency is well

Serve hot
Enjoy!

Baked colin fillet, shrimp & broccoli

This is really healthy dish, I love the lemon grass & lilme leaves flavor

Ingredients (4 servings)
2 colin fillets*
10-12 tiger shrimps*

2 carrots
1 broccoli
12 mushrooms

2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
8 lime leaves**
1 lime juice
salt & pepper
Optional: olive oil

1 lime zest
2 stalks lemon grass

*you can use 4 colin fillets & no shrimps, or 20-24 shrimps & no colin fillet... it is up to you

**tear them from the edge towards the center a few times - to release flavor

Instructions
1. Wash carrots, broccoli & mushrooms
Prepare a pot, boil enough water to pre-cook the vegetables

To prepare the lemon grass - cut each stalk into 3 parts, cut each part lengthwise into half, use a knife to mash them a bit to release the flavor

2. Slice the carrots in lengthwise into long pieces
Cut the flowers in half, cut the trunks in lengthwise 
Cut the mushrooms into half if they are small, in 1/4 if they are big

3. When the water boils, put carrots & broccoli trunks (NOT broccoli flower), reduce heat to medium, cover the lid and leave them cook for 3 mins 
Then add in broccoli flower & mushroom, cook for another 2 mins

Preheat the oven to 150°c

4. After 5 mins, run vegetables under cool water to keep its bright color, discard the water, transfer the vegetables into a baking dish

Add in half quantity of the parsley, lime leaves, lime juice, salt & pepper, olive oil, mix well

5. On a plate, place the colin fillets
Add in the rest of the parsley, lime leaves, lime juice, salt & pepper, olive oil, use your hand to rub these ingredients

6. Place the fillets on the top of the vegetables
Sprinkle lime zest & place lemon grass on the top

7. Place the baking dish into the oven and bake it for 45mins

Enjoy!

Spinach quiche (meat-free)

Quiche night yay! Got some spinach to finish up... ok let me make a spinach quiche :)

Sometime important to note - You don't cook Spinach ahead, or it becomes too old, but since spinach release juice when cooked, you'll need to reduce the quantity of milk or cream, but I rather like richer taste so I only reduce milk quantity here.

There is no parmesan cheese on the top in this photo

Ingredients
300g pastry dough, click here for the recipe

1 onion
4 shallots

olive oil

250g cream in liquid (I used 30%)
100g milk (I used 1.5%)
3-4 eggs

400g Spinach

60g parmesan cheese

Salt & pepper

Sprinkle on the top: parmesan cheese

Instructions
1. Wash spinach
Chop onion & shallots

Set aside

2. In a big mixing bowl, mix onion, shallots, olive oil, cream, milk, eggs. Mix well
Then add in spinach & parmesan cheese, mix well
Add in salt & pepper

3. Preheat the oven at 200°c
Place a baking sheet on a pie mould

4. On a floured working surface, roll out the dough until it's 0.3cm (not thicker than 0.5cm) thickness
Lay the dough on the pie mould

5. Use a ladle to transfer the egg mixture to the pie mould carefully

6. Put the quiche into the oven for 30mins or until the surface becomes golden

Note: I used large cake mould since I have no pie mould at home. Because of the height of the quiche is about 4cm, I baked it for 1 hour

Serve hot with some parmesan cheese on the top!
Enjoy!

土匪雞 Bandit chicken for baking or barbecue

I found a recipe given by a friend long time ago, I put it in my recipe box and I haven't tried it... When I eat the chicken, it tastes so good... felt a bit regretted why I didn't try it out earlier!!

I wonder why we call it "bandit chicken" - someone said it was because the bandits robed people's properties and also their herbs & spices for cooking chicken wings, such smell was distinctive. Whenever people smelled it, they knew for sure these bandits gathered around.

Wonderful barbecue idea - If you want to do barbecue, you can use this recipe to prepare your chicken wings or thighs. Your neighbor will wonder where this good smells come from!

Ingredients
12 chicken wings*

1/2" fresh ginger, grinded
1 tsp garlic, minced

1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp cooking wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp 5-spices powder**
pepper

optional: corn starch

black sesame

* I used boneless chicken thighs for tender texture
* 5-spices powder contains star anis, cloves, cinnamon, red pepper, fennel seeds

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven - 200°C

2. Grind ginger & chop finely garlic
Add in soy sauce, wine, sesame oil, cumin, sugar & 5-spices & pepper, mix well with your hands
You may use a zip-log bag to mix the chicken & seasonings

3. If you find too much sauce, you can add 1 tsp corn starch to thicken it

4. Leave the chicken rest for 1 hour so the meat absorbs the seasonings well

5. Place the chicken wings on a shallow baking dish
Sprinkle black sesame on the top

6. Chicken wings: bake for 15-20mins
Chicken thigh: 25-30mins

Insert a knife to test if the meat is well done

Enjoy!

Raspberry ice-cream

Who doesn't love raspberry? It's hot outside, let me make some :)
The taste it really good - a bit acid & a bit sweet.

Ingredients

- frozen raspberry, about 700g

- cream, about 250ml

- icing sugar (you need to taste it...) I used about 150g

Instructions

Mix the ingredients together, TASTE it and put it into the ice-cream machine (follow the instructions of your machine).

Quality control for making ice-cream is important!

Optional: At the end you can add some defrosted raspberries or even the fresh ones, with some almond flakes & the raspberry sauce... yummm!

This is how I ate it - with meringue... because I had some egg whites left in the fridge... :p Sorry, it can be better presented... improvement for next time!

French Pot au feu

I looked over my old recipes and found this one, it is from an old cook book. 

Ingredients (about 6 servings)
1.2 kg beef, short ribs, marrow bones - defrozed
3 L water, room temperature

1 onion
3 cloves garlic
4 cloves
4 thyme
4 bail leaves
4 sage
8-10 pepper grains
1 tbsp salt

2kg vegetables - carrots, leek, turnip, celery

Instructions
1. In a big cooking pot, pour water & place meat, bring to boil and let it boil for 10mins
Remove white foam if there is any, then reduce to low heat, cook for 1 hour

Note: the best will be cocotte such as Staub or Le Creuset (Mine: 37cm oval Staub)

2. Briefly chop onion and mash the garlic
After 1 hour, add onion, garlic, cloves, thyme, bail leaf, sage, pepper & salt into the pot
Leave it cook for another 1 hour at low heat

3. When time is up, add in vegetables, bring to boil at medium high heat
Then reduce the heat to low & leave it cook for 1 more hour

Note: If you use frozen vegetables, you can directly put them into the pot but bring it to boil for 5 mins

Serve hot!
Enjoy!