Food Explorer & Home Chef
I forget what day of the week it is already. Weekday or weekend, it doesn’t make much of a difference when you’re staying home either way. Here’s one way you can shake things up a bit. As mentioned in my last post, I’m sharing my …
So, the news is out, and we’re stuck at home for another 2 weeks! Haiz! Let’s cheer ourselves up by making a dessert for a change. While in the process of fine-tuning my mother’s Pork Trotter’s recipe, I thought I’ll share this Thai dessert recipe …
Feels like we’re in limbo, this MCO (movement control order). While some people get back to basics and unleash their inner chef, others are running out of ideas of what to cook.
Frankly, after practically living in the kitchen these past few weeks, I opted for food delivery for a change, and also to support our local hawkers and coffeeshops. Maaaan, streetfood have never tasted so GOOD! But then again, the MSG, the extra salt and extra oil, also tasted so much more apparent as our tastebuds had gotten used to homecooked food which is generally healthier.
Well, here’s one recipe that’s guaranteed to turn out, even if you feel you can’t cook to save your life. All you need is a slow cooker to wake up to a delicious pot of goodness the next day.
My recipe is a cross between a Western stew and Chinese braised (thick soy sauce) beef. If you try this out often enough, you’ll probably be able to further fine tune the recipe to your own liking. If you can’t get your hands on the Western herbs, it’s OK though they do add toward a more robust and flavoursome stew.
Ingredients
1kg stew beef (with streaks of fat, cut into 4cm chunks)
1 big onion (cut into 4)
3 cloves of garlic, chopped small
3 carrots
4 potatoes
3 stalks of celery
1 small (white) Chinese radish
1 large tomato (diced into 4)
750ml beef broth or beef stock
2 tablespoons thick soy sauce
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Salt and sugar to taste
1 stick cinnamon
2 star of anise, 5 cloves, 2 bay leaves
Black pepper
Mixed herbs or rosemary or thyme
Method
Most recipes call for you the garlic and onion to be tossed around in a tablespoon of oil in a separate pan for about a minute or two. Then, brown the beef which has been rubbed with salt and pepper lightly and set aside.
But I’m going to suggest a shortcut here. True chefs will admonish me but I feel it doesn’t really make a huge difference or affect the taste drastically. Besides, I’m too lazy to wash that extra pan. So, throw in the garlic, onion and then, the beef into the slow cooker directly.
Cut all the veggie into large cubes and add them in on top of the beef. Pour in the beef broth. Add in the remaining ingredients (except the salt and sugar), give it a good stir to mix things up, turn on the slow cooker and leave it on for about 6 hours or overnight.
Next up, add salt and sugar to taste. Pour the stew into another pot and heat up over the stove for about 15 to 20 minutes to reduce the gravy. And there, you’ve got your one pot meal!
Some people like to add cornflour to thicken the stew but I don’t really like the starchy end result. Besides, the extra gravy is always welcome in my home as the boys love to soak their bread in it.
I’ve got another recipe which I usually use when I have guests over that involves red wine, but that’s a different story.
Tip: it’s really not that different as it involves popping the stew into the oven for a few hours, and adding the wine midway to give it more oomph!
Was the granola too tedious as you have to keep taking it out of the oven and putting it back in again? Maybe this could be simpler. I was thinking of making a healthier sort of cookie after I saw something in the supermarket. Then, …
It probably wasn’t a big surprise as most of us expected it. But still, when it was announced that another 2 weeks would be added to the Movement Control Order (MCO), it seemed like a lifetime sentence. I know, I know. I’m feeling pretty restless …
I was getting tired of the usual ABC soup. And while double boiled soups are good and nourishing, but it takes time and ingredients. Time we have, but going out to buy ingredients can be challenging in these times.
True blue ajummas may argue that this is not an authentic Doenjang Guk – Korean Soybean soup with zucchini and tofu – but it’s quite similar. But I’m the queen of innovation, so I made do with what I had in my fridge. I had a couple stalks of celery left so I threw that in too!
This soup can be whipped up in just 20 minutes, and if you have some kimchi and fried fish at home, your complete Korean set lunch is done.
Ingredients
1 block of white tofu, the firmer version
1 big onion, sliced
1 pack enoki mushrooms
Large handful of beansprouts
4 cups of anchovy (ikan bilis) stock
3 cloves of chopped garlic
Fishcake/crabstick – optional if you want to make it vegetarian.
Seasoning
1 tablespoon doenjang (Korean soybean paste)
2 tablespoons gochujang (Korean chili paste)
1 tablespoon Korean chili flakes (optional, if you like spicy)
Method
Put stock soup in a deep pot and bring to a boil Of course, if you want to make your own fresh stock, that’s even better, by boiling anchovies, dried kelp, dried shiitake mushroom, garlic and onions.
Add in garlic, soup seasoning, and mix properly until beanpaste is blended fully. Throw in tofu, fishcake, onion, mushroom and beansprouts last. If you have zucchini, that would be perfect, add this in at the start and ensure it’s been cooking for about a few minutes before adding the other ingredients.
Turn off fire about everything has been boiling for about 10 minutes. Your gochujang soup is ready to be served!
We’re going into Day 3 of Restricted Control Order (RCO), and some people are already getting cabin fever. Since everybody is stuck at home, we might as well do some cooking, right? Most people can do, or have tried to do a basic fried rice. …
(UPDATE: YI PIN CHU CLOSED FOR GOOD POST MCO) When weekends come by, we usually eat out as I wanna take a break from cooking. There are so many new cafes and restaurants popping up. Sometimes, I forget that there are many outlets in my …
There’s sushi and there’s burrito, and then there’s Sushi Brito.
Sushi Brito offers a mash-up of foods from two different cultures. A Sushi Burrito is essentially rice ball with stuff in the middle in long roll format or, imagine a California roll, except that the cone is now a rectangular roll instead.
What’s in a name, right?
Giving it a go, we tried the Salmon Brito, which tasted like what we expected – Onigiri. It had rice enveloping some salmon, a bit of salad, dressing, like a larger version of Onigiri, but with more stuffing. The whole roll was divided into four parts, which wasn’t satisfying for No. 2 who didn’t find his choice terribly exciting. Maybe this was meant to be like a starter and not a full meal?
Modern trendy Japanese restaurants go beyond just conventional Japanese food and Sushi Brito is no different, with burgers, pastas, Western meals and even sushi in a spoon on the menu.
I had the Japanese version of Salmon Burger that came with rice instead of a bread bun which sandwiched the fish in the middle. Remember the now defunct Japanese burger chain Moshi Burger? This was just like that – the ‘burger’ simple, but fulfilling as the rice was quite tasty, smeared with teriyaki sauce. They also have charcoal bun for those who prefer more predictable burgers.
No. 1 chose Udon with spicy soup, which we reckon was the best out of the four dishes we ordered. Mildly spicy, the soup gave the dish character; portion was better with thin slices of tender beef and quite a bit of udon.
No. 3 also had udon, but with salmon and pesto sauce, made creamy with an onsen egg and sprinkled with walnuts. This was an curious blend which confused the palate. Takes a bit of getting used to, this East meets West thing; sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. The creamy flavour of the pesto was quite good, but didn’t quite go with udon as the fat noodle doesn’t absorb flavours so well.
As it is with all Japanese fast food joints with sushi on a conveyor belt, you always inevitably end up grabbing a few even if you had no intention to. This added to the bill, otherwise prices were very reasonable, averaging about RM15 per dish. Add another RM5.50 and you get a miso soup, chawan mushi as well as a drink as a set to go a main course.
Calling it for what it is, a Japanese fast food joint, Sushi Brito offers reasonably priced meals for the local neighbourhood. Once teeming with only Chinese coffeeshops, now Taman Megah appears to be getting slowly gentrified with ‘fancy’ establishments. When one gets tired of the usual wantan mee and chicken rice choices, sushi is a nice change.
I’m just waiting for a decent cafe to open here and I’ll be set for my coffee fix.
Add: 17, Jalan SS 24/8, Taman Megah, Petaling Jaya. Tel: 011-6331 7600
I was going for something different with meehoon (rice vermicelli) other than the usual stir-fry and meehoon soup variations, and I found a recipe for Thai minced beef noodle. This turned out quite refreshing and the boys gave their stamp of approval so I thought …