Korean Sweet Potato Glass Noodle (Japchae)

25Apr2018
This week is princess recess week. Since she is at home, I can make this korean glass noodle which I had bought a few week ago. I always look forward to my children to be around so that I could cook special dish for them.

On a normal day, I will just settle with simple lunch.

My mum-in-law likes to cook also glass noodle. But she usually uses the very fine and thin white glass noodle. She cooks glass noodle with minced meat and eggs without veggies. Hers is real savory without any sugar added. The type that I used in this recipes are the thicker type which is a little grey in colour. There are made from sweet potato. Mum-in-law uses those made from green beans.

While I was searching for Korea glass noodle or also called sweet potato glass noodle 冬粉, I realised that those selling in the supermarket are mostly made in China although they are called Korean Glass noodle.

As I could not find any Korean glass noodle that are  made in Korea, even those Korean branded in the supermarket that I have patronised are made in China, so I have to settle with China made Korean Glass Noodle.

Daughter was delighted when she saw the noodle. She took second serving after she finished those in her plate. When she is happy, I am happy too😁

This is the recipe :

Ingredients :

140gm Korean Glass Noodle/ Sweet Potato Noodle (Half pkt of 284g)

3 pcs Dried shitake mushroom, soak in water to soften, then cut into thin strips

3-4pcs Black fungus, soak to soften then cut into thin strps

1/2 Carrots , cut into thin strips

1/2 Red Capsicum

2-3 leaves of Cabbages, cut into thin strips

1/2 Red Big Onion, slice into thin strips

2-3 stalks of Spring onion, cut into 1inch length 

150g Beef( i used frozen shabu shabu), cut into strips

1 tbsp cooking oil( i use olive oil)

Some fried white sesame(optional)

Some Water for boiling noodle

Seasonings:

For mushroom:

1tsp minced garlic

1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

Dash of pepper

For Beef:

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp raw sugar (can use any type of sugar)

1/2 tbsp cooking wine

1/2 tbsp sesame oil

Dash of black pepper (can use white pepper)

For Noodle;

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp raw sugar (can use any type of sugar)

1/2 tbsp cooking wine

1 tbsp sesame oil

Method:

1. Boil water in pot. Once water is boiled, add in the noodle. When the noodle is soften, approx. 1-2min. Off the heat. Remove from water and rinse the noodle with cold water until noodle is cold. Set aside

2. Season cut mushroom and beef with seasoning accordingly. Set aside. 

3.  Use a non-stick wok/pan, add oil. Add in sliced onion. Stir fry onion until is soften, add seasoned mushroom and also black fungus. Stir until mushroom is fragrance, add seasoned beef and carrots and cabbages. Stir fry until beef is about cooked, add capsicum. Stir fry 1-2 min until beef is totally cooked. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. In the same wok, add the cooked glass noodle as in the above (1). Add also the noodle seasoning. Stir fry and mix them well. Return the beef mushroom mixture from above (3) into the fry pan/wok.. Mix them well. Add spring onion. Mix well. Sprinkle some fried white sesame.  Remove from heat. Dish japchae/galss noodle into individual serving plate. Serve. 

Enjoy😊

Note:

1. As my daughter doesn't like savory food sweet, so I have reduced the sugar. You may add extra sugar if you prefer more sweet taste japchae.

2. You may adjust the seasonning accordingly to your taste.

3. You may replace cabbages with spinach or other green vegetables.

You may be interested in the following recipes too :

1. kimchi making

2. kimchi-meat-soup

3. homemade-fried-meat-ball

Beef Meatballs (Ikea meatball copycat)

9 Mar 2018

Can't decide whether to make "ikea" meatball copycat or seafood pasta, so in the end cooked both. I have wanted to homemade Ikea meatball since last year. However, did not manage to do this dish until today. 

  

I googled several recipes online to have an idea how others make these meatballs. With wisdom from above, this is how I  homemade "ikea" meatball copycat😃..

Surprisingly, it taste very good though this is my first time making it. Hubby and dauggter loved this meatballs and hubby ate half of them. As he eat, he kept saying "nice! Very nice". Daughter too like these meatballs. She said "nice leh!"

This is the recipe. .

Ingredients:

500g minced beef

100g minced pork

1 egg

1/4 tsp pepper

1 slice of wholemeal bread - cut into small pieces

1 big onion - chopped

3 garlic - chopped

2-3 Tbsp milk

1.5 Tbsp light sauce

1 tsp salt

2 tsp corn flour

1 Tbsp oil

Method

1. In a frying pan add oil then onion n garlic a d fry until onion is soft and fragrance. Remove from heat and pour into cutted bread. 

2. Add milk into the bread n fried onion mixture. Combine them.

3. In a large bowl add beef and pork, egg, salt, light sauce, bread mixture and corn flour.

Combine them and mix well.

4. Prepare a baking tray layed with parchment paper.

Wear disposal glove and take some meat mixture and roll into 1inch meatball with hands. Place meatball onto the baking tray. Continue to roll all the rest of the meat mixture until all are made into meatballs.

5. Place tray of meatballs into preheat oven  200°C and bake for about 20-30min.

Tomato Rice

3Jul2017

Cooked tomatoe rice for last Saturday parents group gathering. This was one of the rice which I like to cook when the children were younger. Rice very fragrance and nice. Goes well with baked or grilled chicken or chicken curry.

There are few ways of cooking this rice. The most simple way is throw all ingredients into rice cooker and switch on electricity  and set to "cook" mode and rice will be ready in 20mins depending on the type of rice cooker you use. This method is easy if you do not wish to do clean up at all. So dump all ingredients into cooker and you will have tomato rice to eat.

Another way is you cook them in a frying pan or sauteing the rice in a skillet pan over fire just like how you would cook paella. 

One other way is what I did as in the method mentioned in this recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups Basmati rice or any type of white rice

Approx. 350mil chicken stock*

2 big red ripe tomatoes - chopped*

5 or 6 cherry tomatoes - halfed

1 big red onion - chopped

5 cloves of glarics -minced

2 small onions - minced

1/2 thumb size ginger - minced

1 baf leave

3 cloves

3 cardamons

1 cinnamon stick (5cm length)

1 pandan leaf

1 tsp sea salt or to taste

A dash of white pepper

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup frozen green pea - must defrost

Method:

1. Wash rice and drained and set aside.

2. Put oil in wok, fry big and small chopped onion, minced garlic and minced ginger until it is fragrance a light brown. Add bay leaf, cloves, cardamons and cinnamon stick, stir and fry for few seconds.

3. Add tomotoes and chicken stock. Bring the mixture to boil. Add rice, salt and pepper and bring it to boil. Off fire and transfer rice mixture into rice cooker.

4. Add pandan leaf into the mixture. Cook rice in rice cooker that is "cook" mode setting. When the liquid is almost drying up, add green pea and let the rice continue to cook until rice cooker auto switch to "keep warm"

5. Switch electricity and remove pandan leaf from rice. Use a pair of chopstick and loose the rice. Serve it hot.

You may serve it with baked chicken thighs. A good combination. 

*Note: Tomatoes produces liquid or rather the liquid in tomatoes will affect the end result of rice that will turn out. To prevent rice too soggy or uncooked. I like to measure the liquid and tomato combination with a measuring cup. I put chopped tomatoes into the cup for measuring rice and then pour in the chicken stock. That is equavilent to 3 rice cups of chopped tomatoes + chicken stock to 2 cups of basmati rice.

Invisible Apple Cake

25Jun2017

What do you do if you have alots of apples?

Decided to clear all my apples in my fridge. I turned those apples into invisible cake! Haha..

The aroma of baking this invisible cake is so good till I look forward to the cake. This is the first time making this cake. Happened to come across the recipe in one of the social media and find it interesting. View through several recipes  and I adopted chopstickchronicles and  Emojoie Cuisine. However, I did some modification.

Ingredients:

3 apples - removed skin & core and thinly sliced

2 eggs

30g white caster sugar

20g light brown sugar

25-30gg melted salted butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

A pinch of salt(optional)

100mil fresh milk

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

80g plain flour

A handful of sliced almond (optional)

Method:

1. Pre heat oven at 175°C

2. In a large bowl, beat 2 eggs with sugar until sugar and egg incorporated.

3. Add melted butter and stir well. Add milk, vanilla and salt,  stir them to combine.

4. Sift flour and cinnamon powder together into the egg mixture and continue to stir to combine.

5. Remove apples  skin and core, then slice them thinly and add into the egg flour mixture. Stir them gently with a rubber spatula until every pieces of apple is coated with egg flour mixture. 

6. Pour all the mixture into a 18x8x8 baking pan pre laid with parchment paper. Sprinkle some sliced almond. Bake in preheated oven 175°C for 50min to an hour. Until the center is firmed and surface is golden brown. 

7. Let it cool a little in wire rack and serve while it is warm. You may dust some icing sugar if desire. Or after the cake is completely cooled, leave it in the fridge for 3-4hours and serve it cold dust with icing sugar. 

Enjoy!

Red Beans Paste for Mochi

Was at a shopping mall in the east last weekend. Noticed there was this Japan festival at the shopping mall. Daughter was happy when she saw the mochi stall. However, when she saw the price for one small mochi cost $3/pc, she changed her mind. No matter how I tried to encourage her to buy and eat, she  refused. She said it was too over priced and refused to buy. 

This inspired me to homemade mochi with homemade red beans paste. Sunday came home took out the packet of red beans, rinse and soak the beans. Left it in the fridge and forgotten about it. 

First thing first, I went into Google and search for mochi. Found this blog "justoneCookbook". Follow the instruction how the author cooked the red beans paste. I had done it other way last year when I bake for traditional mooncake. However, I forget to write down the process. Today, to prevent I forget again, I wrote it right away.😊

I have made adjustment to the recipe to suit my taste. Yes, I had reduced the sugar from the original 200g to 100g. Personally, with 50% reduction of sugar, I still find it is very sweet. Next round perhaps to use only 80g of sugar. 

So far, only beans paste. Will do the mochi skin the next few days. Do stay tuned..😊

Here it goes...beans paste ..

Ingredients :

1cup red bean(bigger one) , approx. 200g

Water

1/2 cup sugar (approx. 100g)

A pinch of salt

Method:

1. Wash red bean. Soak red in water overnight or approx. 8-12hours. I soaked mine more than 24hours in fridge as i forgotten about it.

2. Pour away the water that use for soaking bean. Put bean a pot or sauce pan. Put water till it is 2inc above the bean. Cook the bean on high heat.

3. Once it is boiling, turn off the fire. Cover the pot with lid. And let it stand for 5min (I let stand 10min)

4. Pour away the water. Fill with fresh water till it is 2inch above beans. Turn on fire on high heat and cook until bean is soft. That is when the bean is press, it is easily mashed. Note: Continue to add more water if it dry up.  The whole process take about 1.5hours.

5. Once bean is soft, turn up the heat and add sugar in 2 or 3 batches. Then add salt. Continue to cook until it is dry and when you draw a line on the beans,  you could see the bottom of the pot. Turn off fire. Cover with lid. The beans will thicken once it is cool.

 Once it is cooled, refridge if you are not using it immediately. Beans paste can be kept in freezer for a month or chiller for a week. 

Pancakes (Non Dairy and Soy Base)

8Apr2017

This morning, I made some changes in my homemade pancakes recipes. Few weeks ago, I used coconut milk to make buttermilk. Today I tried soya milk added with one big tablespoon of lemon juice. Notice soya milk curd very fast. The result of the pancakes is very soft. There are many bubbles holes in the pancakes. Therefore very soft and fluffy.  So I guess this is why daughter asked "mum, it is so nice, what did you add inside, taste so good!" 

Ingredients (yields 8pcs of 12-15cm pancakes)

1.5 cup self raising flour

1 cup of soya milk(i used soy powder added with water)

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 eggs

4 tbsp caster sugar

1/2 tsp homemade coconut condensed milk(optional)

1 tsp vanilla essence(optional)

Method

Home substitution for buttermilk:

Add lemon juice into soy milk and let it stand for about 5-10min. Soy milk curd very fast. Within about few min you could see the milk thickened. You may use white vinegar or apple cider vinegar instead of lemon

Sift flour in a large bowl. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together for few minutes. Add the above soy milk lemon mixture. Whisk them together. Then gradually whisk the egg mixture  into the flour. Whisk until it become a smooth batter. Tranfer batter to large jug.

Heat up a non-stick frying pan. Highly recommended non-stick pan.

Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into frying pan. Cook pancake until you see bubbles appear on surface and almost dry. Turn the pancake with a spatula to lightly brown other side. Cover pancakes on plate with foil to keep them warm. Continue to make more pancakes with remaining batter.

Serve pancakes topped with your desired jam and butter or margarin.

P.S.  If you are using a normal frying pan, oil the frying pan with 1 tbsp of oil. Then use a kitchen paper towel to wipe away excess oil. Note: the first piece using normal frying pan will not look so desirable. But subsequent one will be perfect.

Note: If you do not have a metric measuring cup at home, you may use any kind of cup for drinking your water or coffee etc. Just make sure you use the same cup to measure all the ingredients.

You may like the following pancakes :
1. Homemade-pancake (Dairy) for those who want to use dairy cow milk.

2. rice-omelette-pancake

3. kimchi-pancake

Do drop me a note if you have tried this recipe and like it. 😊

Happy cooking😊

Non Dairy Fluffy Pancakes

Daughter wanted to skip dairy products as she thinks dairy cause the outbreak. And I am craving for pancakes. To have pancake and at the same time daughter no need to worry about the pimple, I have to replace the dairy milk with something non-dairy. 

This morning, I changed the existing homemade-pancake  recipe a little. Instead of using homemade buttermilk, I replaced it with homemade "non dairy buttermilk".

I find the results of non dairy pancakes looks no different from dairy and most important is it taste good. It is fluffy and soft. Daughter exclaimed "taste very nice, mummy!". With her encouraging words, you just find making changes to recipe and keep improving is worth it. 😊

Ingredients (yields 8pcs of 12-15cm pancakes)

1.5 cup self raising flour

1 cup of coconut milk(carton type)

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 eggs

4 tbsp caster sugar

Method

Add lemon juice into coconut milk and let it stand for about 10min. This is to make buttermilk at home. You can substitute lemon juice with white vinegar. 

Sift flour in a large bowl. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together for few minutes. Add the above coconut milk lemon mixture. Whisk them together. Then gradually whisk the egg mixture  into the flour. Whisk until it become a smooth batter. Tranfer batter to large jug.

Heat up a non-stick frying pan. Highly recommended non-stick pan.

Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into frying pan. Cook pancake until you see bubbles appear on surface and almost dry. Turn the pancake with a spatula to lightly brown other side. Cover pancakes on plate with foil to keep them warm. Continue to make more pancakes with remaining batter.

Serve pancakes topped with your desired jam and butter or margarine

P.S.  If you are using a normal frying pan, oil the frying pan with 1 tbsp of oil. Then use a kitchen paper towel to wipe away excess oil. Note: the first piece using normal frying pan will not look so desirable. But subsequent one will be perfect.

Note: If you do not have a metric measuring cup at home, you may use any kind of cup for drinking your water or coffee etc. Just make sure you use the same cup to measure all the ingredients.