Japanese beef rice

I bought some sliced beef from Asian supermarket last week, I wanted to make hotpot, but it ended up beef rice :)

In Japanese it is called Gyudon. As I see I got most of the ingredients at home, I want to try this out.

Ingredients

  

2 Eggs

260g Beef with a bit of fat, thinly sliced

Sauce*:
2tbsp Soy sauce
1tbsp Sake
1tbsp Brown sugar
1tbsp Hon-Mirin
100ml Water
1/2tsp granulated Dashi
5g Fresh ginger, grated**

1 Onion, sliced & separate the layers

*No Japanese ingredients at home? Solution = I used 100ml sweet barbeque beef sauce, add in 60ml water


** I used ginger powder as I don't have any fresh ginger at home

Serve with:
Steamed Japanese rice***
Shichimi - Seven flavor chili pepper
1 stalk Spring onion, chopped finely


*** it is not told in the original recipe, but you can keep the boiled beef water (remove some grease on the surface) and cook the rice

Instructions
1. Prepare Japanese rice

2. In a heavy duty pot (Le Creuset or Staub), put 2 eggs

In another pot, boil 1L water in a pot, when it is boil, pour the boiling water in the heavy duty pot
Cover the lid immediately, set it aside for 20mins
After 20mins, remove water, set aside

3. In a pot, boil water to cook beef, when it is boiling, put beef and cook until it starts turning red color to brown color. Remove water immediately
Set aside the beef

4. In a saucepan, place soy sauce, sake, sugar, mirin, water, dashi, ginger and onion, let it cook until the onion starts become well cook

5. Add beef back into the saucepan, stir with the sauce, let it cook for few mins
Then turn off the heat, let it stay on the stove to keep warm

6. When the rice is ready:
- Place the rice at the bottom of a serving bowl
- Place beef and onion onto the rice but leave the middle empty
- Crack the egg in the middle - egg white becomes white color but in liquid state
- Sprinkle spring onion and Shichimi

Enjoy!

Japanese udon soup

I love Japanese food, because they are so pretty, also Japanese doesn't use a lot of herbs and seasonings when compare to other cuisines like Thai food or Indian food or even its neighbor country - Korean food, for me Japanese food stays natural. It is good to have some balances - some days Indian/Thai/Korean and some days Japanese.

Here is a simple meal with udon soup - healthy and yummy :)

Ingredients (2 person)

Soup:
600ml water
1 piece sea weed (size of your hand)
10g dried Chirimen fish
1 firm tofu, cut into smaller blocks

2tsp soya sauce
2tsp fish sauce
1/2tbsp mirin
salt

1 pack golden needle mushroom
4 oyster mushroom

Noodle:
2 packages of udon noodle

Serving:
1 stalk spring onion (only green leaves part), chopped them finely

Instructions
1. In a pot, boil water with sea weed, dried Chirimen fish and tofu until it boils
Add in soya sauce, fish sauce, mirin and salt. Then reduce to medium heat

2. Add in mushrooms and let it boil again
Turn off the heat and set aside with the lid covered

3. In another pot, boil water
When water is boiled, add udon noodle, let it cook according to the instruction on the package, mine is 5mins

4. Drain the water, pour the udon into 2 big serving bowls

5. Put the tofu, mushrooms, seaweed (if not too hard to eat) and spring onion
Pour the soup over

Serve hot!

Enjoy!

Indian prawn/ shrimp curry

I love Indian food, but I found that Indian dishes do not always have coconut milk in it. So I wonder how to make them....

Got a recipe, it is good, rich flavor :)

Ingredients
3tbsp vegetable oil
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves

2 onions, diced
2 green chillies, diced

2tbsp ginger garlic paste*

1.5tsp tumeric powder
1tsp red chili powder
1tsp coriander powder
1tsp garam masala

4 tomatoes, diced
1tbsp cumin powder
1tbsp tomato paste
1cup water

600g prawn/ shrimp
2 pinch of salt

200ml warm water

*1. Can be replaced by 1tbsp fresh ginger and 1tbsp fresh garlic
2. If you want to make ginger garlic paste =
Blend 1tbsp fresh ginger and 1tbsp fresh garlic
(if young ginger:keep skin, if old ginger:remove skin)

Instructions
Medium heat, put oil, cinnamon sticks, cloves
Add onions and chillies till golden color

Add ginger and garlic, stir well

Low heat, add tumeric, red chili, coriander & garam masala
Add tomatoes, cumin & tomato paste
Add 1cup water, keep stirring until the water is well absorbed into the mixture
cover by a lid, sim 10-15mins, you can see the oil is floating on the top after 10-15mins

Turn back to high heat, add prawns, stir well
Add salt

Add water and let it cook for 10mins

Enjoy!

Black sesame Tangyuan

This year my first dessert is a Chinese traditional dessert, to celebrate new year.

My grandmother was a great cook, she loved making it, it's a pity that she passed away when I was a baby :(

Anyway, it is my first time to make it, I'm surprised how easy to make them. I will make it again for Lunar new year :) 

Ingredients

Sesame filling:
25g fried black sesame powder*
25g sugar
1.5 tbsp butter

Dough:

110g glutinous flour
50g hot water
50g cold water

Sweet soup:
2.5 cup water
80g cane sugar (= 1 block)
3-4 sliced fresh ginger

*To prepare fried black sesame, click here

Instructions
1. On a pan, mix black sesame powder, sugar & butter until they blend well
Place them in a small box and cool it in the fridge

2. Mix glutinous flour and hot water, mix well and start kneading it with your hands
Add in cold water, little by little, knead the dough until the dough not sticky

3. Divide the dough into 10 portions

4. Put the dough in your palm and roll it into a ball shape
Place the dough on your palm, flatten the dough by your fingers into a bowl shape

5. Use a small spoon to scoop some black sesame mixture, place it in the middle of dough
Close the opening & roll the dough in your palm lightly to make it into the round shape

6. In a pot, boil enough water to cook the tangyuan
When it becomes boil, put all the tangyuan, turn down the heat to medium, stir the tangyuan occasionally so that they won't stick at the bottom

8. When the tangyuan floats, add 1 cup of cold water, bring to boil again, so that they become well cook
Take them out and place it in a bowl

9. In another pot put 2.5 cup water, cane sugar and ginger, bring it to boil
Add in tangyuan, let it boil and float

Serve hot!

Enjoy!

Mascarpone cream

I like mascarpone cream, not too sweet like buttercream :) I use it for making filling of different cakes.

Vanilla mascarpone cream matches Earl grey chiffon cake perfectly! Love this combination!

Ingredients of mascarpone cream 
(filling the middle part of the chiffon cake)
150g mascarpone
30g icing sugar
37ml whole milk
1g vanilla extract*

* Green tea flavor = 6g powder

Instructions
1. Beat mascarpone until it becomes smooth

2. Add in the rest of the ingredients, beat them until well blended and the mixture becomes smooth
Note: It is normal if it looks a bit liquid, will be firm after cooling down

3. Store in the fridge few hours before use

Now it can be chiffon cake filling, swiss roll filling, or cupcake filling!

Mascarpone cream fills the middle of the chiffon cake

The top is the whipping cream

Enjoy!

Apple tart in rose

I got some apples left in the fridge... hmmm... let me turn them into something beautiful and tasty :)
This rose decoration is from a photo that I saw on internet, not in cupcake size but bigger size! As I wanted to make something for my husband's colleagues, so I tried to make one.... it turns out nicely, yay :)

Now let me share my observation and things to be careful when you make this rose apple tart.

I think the most important thing to be careful is to cook the apple slices, so that they won't break when you make them in rose shape.

Ingredients (11" ring mould)
3.5-4 medium size apples

2tbsp cane sugar
1tbsp honey
3tbsp water
cinnamon or nutmeg (add more or less according to your flavor)

300g Short crust pastry

*6" mould needs about 2-2.5 apples

Instructions
1. Roll out the pastry flat and evenly, place it on a ring mould or any tart mould
Use a fork to pinch some holes on the dough surface
Store in the fridge for the moment

2. Cut the apples into half, trim the top, bottom and the middle part of the apples, do not peel off the skin :)
Carefully cut them into thin slice, I tried to slice them into about 0.1-0.2cm in average... but don't worry, once they are cook, they become soft. Try to slice them as thin as you can

3. In a pan, put the 2/3 sliced apples (all small & medium slices should be cooked), sugar, honey and water
Bring it to boil, then keep it at low heat, let it cook for 3-5mins or until they are soft => you can tell by the texture and color

ATTENTION: you'll notice they are in different sizes, try to sort them into different sizes, for example, place the same size on the same plates

Note 1: using a pan is better than a pot because you can spread them out instead of stacking all together, you will find it less chance to break them

Note 2: the thinner slices are easier to cook, so when they are cook, remove them from the pan, I used chopsticks to help, I think better not to use fork to pinch them, you might use a clip... 

4. Once you take out all the apple slices from the pan to a plate, you'll notice water remains on the pan, do not throw it away, you can add some honey, stir constantly and let it cook until you start seeing many small bubbles start popping out, turn the heat off immediately => then you make the topping (to glaze the apple tart at the end)!

Cover it and set it aside 

Note: If you found the topping is rather sticky, you can add water: drop by drop! otherwise it will become watery again

5. When the apple slices are cooled down or you are able to touch it without burning your fingers, you can start laying the slices on the tart dough

6. We start the rose from the middle and spread it outward
We start with the small size (but not the smallest one, keep them until the end), take one slice and roll it tightly, hold it, take another one to cover the first one tightly
Repeat the same process until you can't hold the rose any more, you can try to place it in the middle of the dough, normally it will stick to one another nicely

7. Each time you add one more slices, make sure you overlap the previous one, at least half of the size of the previous one, so that they look nice

8. When you lay the fresh apple slices, you might find it difficult to stick to the previous slice, but be patient, try to overlap more to the previous one and use a hand to hold it and another hand grab slices and lay them

When you come to the last big slice on the dough, you will notice that there will be only the smallest ones left
You can now place them on the edge and hide them

You might also notice that the slices are all standing up straight especially the outer part around the tart, if that's the case, gently press down the fresh slices towards the edge, it looks more natural like the flower is blooming

 This is how it looks before baking

9. Now you can put the tart back to the fridge for 1-2hours to let the dough relax

10. After 1-2hrs, preheat the oven at 180°c, when it's ready, put the tart into the oven and bake for:
Medium size (6") = about 25-30mins
Large size (11") = about 40mins

If you think the tart edges are not in golden color but the apple starts looking burn, you can:
i/ Turn the oven function to "heat only at the bottom". If you don't have this function, you might need aluminium foil to cover the surface, but I am afraid that would stick on the surface. When you remove the foil, you might pull out the slices as well...

ii/ Remove the ring and put it back to the oven until you see the edge turns golden color

11. When the tart is cooled down, remember the topping, glaze the top with a brush - to keep the tart shiny and look nice. Also it adds some sweetness especially to the fresh apple slices at the outer part of the tart

------------------------------------------------
Q: You might also encounter this problem - You finish laying all the apple slices but you don't have enough apple slices to lay on the rest of the dough. What should you do?

A: Do not panic. Take out 1 fresh apple or more if you think you need more, repeat step 2 cut them into slices. In this case, you won't cook them but try to slice them thin so it won't break easily.

If you can fit the small ones between the layers or at the edge, go ahead and do it, or you can eat them all :)

---------------------------------------------------
Q: You might find 1/2 apple or more left, what to do with them?

A: 1. You can eat them fresh
2. If they are not cook, make detox water - put them in a jar with cinnamon stick (ONLY, not powder) OR with other fruits such as lemon slices... fill the jar with 1L water and let it sit for few hours before serving!

Enjoy!

Brussels sprout gratin

Another recipe for Brussels sprouts to share with you, it is like French cheese gratin but this time we use Brussels sprout instead of potato.

Ingredients
About 40 Brussels sprouts

Bechamel sauce:
2tbsp butter
2tbsp flour
2 cups whole milk (I used skim milk instead of whole milk)
Salt & pepper
2/3 cup grated smoked Gouda cheese (I used regular grated cheese)

2/3cup grated aged Gouda cheese (I used regular grated cheese)
Coarse salt

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven at 190°c

2. Prepare the bechamel: 
- In a sauce pan, melt butter at medium heat

- Add flour and whisk until mixture, mix well

- Whisk in 1/2cup milk at first, to blend well into the mixture, then pour little by little the rest of the milk

- Raise heat to medium high and bring to boil. Keep stirring. Now the milk becomes hotter

- Reduce heat to low and cook, keep stirring with a spetula or wooden spoon, until thickened, it takes about 12-15 mins

- Add in salt and pepper, mix well

- Turn off the heat, add cheese and stir until melted

3. Cook the Brussels sprouts:
- In a pot, boil the water and then add in Brussels sprouts
- Cook for 10mins until tender => use a knife to pierce into the sprouts
- Remove water, then transfer the sprouts to a baking dish

4. Assemble gratin:
Pour bechamel over the Brussels and sprinkle the cheese and salt
Bake for 25mins or until golden

Enjoy!