Thursday, October 31, 2013

spicy pork and kimchi fried rice

So we cooked too much rice, and I had a box of rice sitting in the fridge. I wondered what to do with it, and since I had some sliced pork belly sitting in the fridge as well, I decided to cook kimchi fried rice.


Kimchi fried rice is amazingly easy to cook.

I started by marinating the pork with gochujang, soy sauce, sesame oil and black pepper.

This was set aside.



I prefer to use Korean sesame oil when I cook Korean food because the smell of the sesame oil is potent!! But if you do not have Korean sesame oil, an ordinary sesame oil will do as well.


I finely diced an onion, and chopped the kimchi.


In a hot wok, I added some vegetable oil and stir-fried the onion for a minute, until the onion had softened a little.


I added minced garlic and continued to stir-fry for another 30 seconds.


Then the pork was added, and stir-fried until the pork was cooked through.



I added the kimchi, and stirred to mix.



The rice, as well as the soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, kimchi juice, salt and pepper were added and I stir-fried the rice until everything was mixed through.

I served the rice immediately, with a fried egg, but it was just as good without the egg!


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RECIPE
Spicy Pork and Kimchi Fried Rice (Serves 2)
Adapted from tofoodwithlove.com

Ingredients:
120g (4 oz) thinly sliced pork, or beef, or chicken (I used pork belly), cut into bite-sized pieces
1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup kimchee, roughly chopped
2 cups overnight cooked rice (calrose or short-grained sushi rice)
1 tbsp soy sauce (or to taste)
1/2 tbsp sugar (or to taste)
1 tbsp sesame oil
Pinch of salt and black pepper, to taste
2 tbsp kimchi juice
1 scallion, chopped

Marinade:
1 tbsp gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
Dash of black pepper

To serve:
2 eggs, fried sunny-side up
Extra chopped scallions for garnish

Method:
Combine pork with marinade, mix well and set aside.
Remove the overnight rice from the fridge and microwave for 30 seconds or until it reaches room temperature. Cold rice can be hard and grainy.
Heat up oil in a non stick wok/pan on high heat. Fry garlic and onions until onions are softened. Add the pork and fry until cooked.
Add kimchee and fry for 1 minute. Then add the rice.
Break up the rice grains and mix it through in the wok/pan. Drizzle over with soy sauce, add sugar and stir again. Spread the rice out in one layer so that it cooks quickly and evenly. Let it fry for half a minute or so, then use a spatula to flip the rice over occasionally. Stir through the chopped scallions, salt and pepper to taste.
Add sesame oil and kimchi juice and toss through the rice for half a minute until glossy. When the rice is ready (I like it to be a little moist), dish out into serving bowls. Garnish with chopped scallions and top with fried egg. Enjoy hot!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

chocolate-chocolate cookies

I bought a copy of Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi a couple of months ago, and had been drooling over the beautiful desserts featured in the book since then. I had been meaning to make something from the book, but because the recipes are rather time-consuming, I did not get round to making anything.

Until now.


I had a bit of time the other day, so I decided to make some chocolate crumbs. "Crumbs" is the name the folks at Momofuku Milk Bar have given to the "clumpy, crunchy, yet sandy little bits of flavour". Crumbs are placed into the cookie dough. The crumbs make the cookies extra flavourful, and the delicious crunchy bits are embedded inside the cookies.

People, I am a cookie-hater. Okay, maybe "hate" is too strong a word to use here, but I really don't like cookies AT ALL. But I have to admit - I ate 2 cookies off the rack. I was terrible!!! But the cookies were SO DAMN GOOD I went as far as pouring some milk into a glass and stuffed the cookies into my face as fast as I could.

How embarrassing.


If you have the time, you really must make these cookies.

Seriously.

There are 2 parts to making these evil-yummies. You must start by making the chocolate crumbs.

To do so, place flour, cornstarch, sugar, cocoa powder and salt into a bowl. Here, I got my slave little boy to help.




The dry ingredients were transferred into a mixing bowl, and I used the paddle attachment of my mixer to thoroughly mixed everything.


I reduced the speed of the mixer to low, and carefully poured the melted butter into the mixing bowl.


This was mixed until everything started coming together.


I transferred the crumb mixture onto a baking tray lined with baking paper (I used Silpat), broke the bigger pieces of crumbs into smaller pieces and baked them.


The crumbs were cooled completely (they would harden as they cooled) and stored in an sir-tight container until I needed them.

To make the cookies, I creamed butter, sugar and corn syrup in a mixing bowl until the mixture turned light and fluffy.



I also melted some chocolate in a ban-marie.


While my son (who had obviously caught the baking bug) sifted the dry ingredients into a bowl.


An egg was cracked, and added to the butter-sugar-corn syrup mixture, together with vanilla extract.



Once the egg had been incorporated, I added the melted chocolate.



And the dry ingredients were folded into the batter.




Finally, the chocolate crumbs were folded in.



Using an ice-cream scoop, I dished out the cookies, slightly flattened the tops and placed them in the fridge to chill (minimum one hour).


Then the cookies were baked at 180C for 18 minutes.


And when done, they were just gorgeous.


And OH-SO-GOOD.


Just be sure you have milk in the fridge when you make these evil-yummies.

*SIGH*

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RECIPE
Chocolate-Chocolate Cookies (Makes 10-15 HUGE cookies, or 40 normal cookies)
Adapted from Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi

Ingredients:
For the Chocolate Crumb:
105g all purpose unbleached flour
1 tsp cornstarch
100g sugar
65g cocoa powder (preferably Valrohna)
1 tsp. kosher salt
85g unsalted butter, melted

For the cookies:
225g unsalted butter at room temperature
300g sugar
2 Tbsp. corn syrup (or ¼ cup glucose)
1 egg
¼ tsp. vanilla extract
60g 55% chocolate (semi-sweet), melted - I used Valrhona, 70%
200g all purpose unbleached flour
100g cocoa powder, preferably Valrohna
¾ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking powder
1¾ tsp. kosher salt
½ recipe of the Chocolate Crumbs - I used an entire batch of crumbs :P

Method:
Make the Crumbs:
Heat the oven to 150C. Combine the flour, cornstarch, sugar, cocoa powder and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle and paddle on low speed until mixed.
Add the butter and paddle on low until the mixture starts to come together in small clusters.
Spread the clusters on a parchment lined pan. Bake for 20 minutes, breaking them up occasionally. The crumbs should still be slightly moist to the touch; they will dry and harden as they cool.
Let the crumbs cool completely before using in a recipe or eating.

Make the cookies:
Combine the butter, sugar and corn syrup in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle and cream together on medium-high for 2-3 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl, add the egg, vanilla and melted chocolate and beat for 7-8 minutes.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together, no longer than 1 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Still on low, add the chocolate crumbs and mix just until incorporated, about 30 seconds.
Using a 2¾ ounce ice cream scoop (or a ⅓ cup measure), portion out the dough onto a parchment lined sheet pan. Pat the tops of the cookie dough flat. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or up to 1 week. Do not bake the cookies from room temperature or they will not bake properly!
Heat the oven to 180C.
Arrange the chilled dough at least 4 inches apart on parchment lined sheet pans. Bake for 18 minutes. The cookies will puff, crackle and spread. It’s hard to tell when dark chocolate cookies are done. IF they still seem doughy in the center, give them 1 more minute but no more than that.
Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pan before transferring to a storage container.

 
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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

cranberry-oatmeal-walnut cake

My little boy has been hanging out with me in the kitchen lately.

Being almost 4, he is always keen to try doing new things and I see no harm in letting him help out with certain tasks.

I had recently joined The Home Bakers hosted by Joyce from Kitchen Flavours. We are baking from "Coffee Cakes" by Lou Seibert Pappas, and this afternoon, I was baking the cranberry-oatmeal-walnut cake when Aden came into the kitchen and declared he was going to "help Mommy bake".


I was more than happy for the little boy to join me in the kitchen and he immediately got to work.

To start, the egg, brown sugar and oil were placed into the bowl of a mixer and beaten until blended.


In the meantime, the buttermilk, molasses and vanilla were measured out and placed into a jug.



And poured into the mixing bowl.


We toasted the oats.


And combined that with the flours, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt and half of the cinnamon.



This was added to the wet mixture.


And beaten until the mixture was smooth.


Finally we added the dried cranberries.


I had halved the original recipe, and I didn't want to bake the cake in a loaf pan because I had a new bundt pan that I wanted to try out.

I placed the chopped walnuts at the bottom of a greased and floured 6-cup bundt pan.


And transferred the batter into the pan.


The cake was ready to be baked.


And once baked, it was allowed to cool in the pan for about 15-20 minutes before I transferred it onto a cooling rack to cool completely.


This is a super healthy cake, with cranberries and oatmeal and wholemeal flour.

Since the verdict from the other bakers was that the cake could be sweeter, I made a quick glaze to go with this cake.

I whisked some icing sugar, honey and milk until I had a glaze that was pour-able.



Simply drizzle the glaze on the cake.


And waited for the glaze to harden before serving the cake!


Kit is hosting this bake so if you are interested in baking this cake, please go to her blog for the recipe.

RECIPE
Honey Glaze (Enough for a 6-cup cake)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon honey

Method: 
1. Whisk icing sugar with milk.
2. Add honey and whisk until combined.