Have you ever made a dish that wasn’t quite sure what it was? Not quite a pasta sauce, but not quite a stew or a satay either? Well, this dish is pretty much exactly that. It works as a pasta sauce or even on rice, can be spooned up with some roti or naan or even just some mountain bread. I’ve had a friend eat this spooned onto toast! Even though it can’t decide quite what it is, it’s peanutty and delicious and choc full of goodness!
Mmm, look at that yumminess right there!
Ingredients
1 medium zucchini, sliced
1 small-medium carrot, sliced
1 small sweet potato, peeled and sliced
1 small red capsicum (bell pepper), deseeded and diced
300g button mushrooms, thickly sliced
1 onion, diced
2 tbsp garlic mince
1 tsp ground ginger
1 small can of 4-bean mix
3 tbsp tomato paste
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup sweet chilli sauce
1/2 cup water
Optional
100g lean rump steak, v. thinly sliced (optional, I often omit this when I want a vegetarian dish)
1. Saute garlic, ginger and onion in 1 tbsp of olive oil. Then add carrot, sweet potato and capsicum/bell pepper and saute till carrot is slightly cooked but still retains some crunch.
2. Add mushrooms and zucchini and mix in well and saute till the zucchini is slightly cooked, then toss in 4-bean mix, tomato paste, peanut butter, sweet chilli sauce and water. Stir everything through till well combined, then lower the heat and simmer for about 20-30 minutes or till veggies have cooked (but not disintegrated).
3. Serve with whatever you want (pasta, rice, toast, roti) and enjoy 
I usually serve this with pasta, but my brother loves to eat it as a stew with a crusty roll, and I’ve had other friends eat it in a manner akin to beans-on-toast
[tags]pasta sauce, vegetarian, pasta, stew, satay, peanut butter[/tags]
There’s a million and one recipes for ‘authentic’ guacamole out there, so I’m not even going to pretend that this one is anywhere near authentic (so, no – this was not passed down to me by the guacamole master in some tiny Mexican village – it’s just something I made up!). Even though this isn’t authentic, it’s been loved by everyone who has tried it is definetely a great dip to have on hand for any parties
Mmm, avocadoey goodness!
Ingredients
1 large, ripe avocado
1 tomato, pulp and seeds removed and diced
1/2 red/spanish onion, finely diced
1-2 tbsp lime juice
1 finely sliced red chilli
Tabasco sauce, to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste
1. Mash avocado, mix with diced tomato and onion.
2. Add lime juice and mix in, then add sliced chilli and stir to combine.
3. Add some tabasco sauce, salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste, mix thoroughly, then open a bag of corn chips and go for it!
[tags]avocado, dip, guacamole, mexican, recipe[/tags]
Kimchi (also spelt as kimchee), is a traditional Korean dish of fermented chilli peppers with a variety of vegetables, the most common being made with Chinese cabbage. It’s deeply ingrained into Korean culture and whilst it is mostly served as a side dish, it can also be used as a basis for other meals such as fried rice, broths and stews. Many Koreans, myself included, will only last a few days before the cravings kick in and kimchi must be eaten in some shape or form.
An example of how much we Koreans love kimchi? In 2005 a report was released that heavy consumption of kimchi could not be very good for your health…and as a result, the professor who released this statement received a variety of death threats.
Kimchi is serious business.
My mother’s kimchi is unlike any other that I’ve tasted, and whilst this is probably due to the care she takes with her particular recipe, it is extremely time-consuming (but very very worth it!). So, if you’ve got a spare weekend with absolutely nothing on your hands, try her family recipe for kimchi. By the end, your back will ache, your hands will be pruney and you’ll have salt and chilli flakes everywhere…but you’ll also have a little slice of fermented heaven.
Mmm, spicy goodness!
Now, we usually use about 10 heads of Chinese cabbage (around 20kg of kimchi), but I’ve trimmed the recipe down for just 1 head of Chinese cabbage
Ingredients
1 fresh Chinese cabbage, dark green outer leaves removed
1 1/2 cup cooking salt
1L water
1 cup Korean chilli powder – aka gochugaru (not flakes, look for it at your local Korean grocery store)
1/2 cup fish sauce
2 tbsp white sugar
6 spring onions, washed and sliced on an angle into slices about 1-2″ long
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 knob of ginger, grated
1/4 nashi pear, cored and peeled
1/4 brown onion, peeled
200g white/chinese radish (long and white as opposed to small, round and pink-tinged)
1. Cut the cabbage in halves or quarters, and cut into the stem to remove most of it.
2. Combine 1L water with 1/2 cup of cooking salt into a large bowl, then plunge one half or quarter of cabbage into the water at a time. Carefully seperate the leaves layer by layer and make sure that you get the salted water right to the base of the leaves.
3. Drain water from the cabbage segments, then sprinkle a light layer of cooking salt over each layer of leaves, making sure to get more towards the thick, white base of the leaf rather than the thinner, green end. This is usually done by coating the lower half of your fingers in salt and using a flicking motion. Don’t feel that you have to use the ENTIRE 1 cup of salt here – just as much as is needed to give the leaves a light sprinkling – its hard to judge how much salt you will need/use as it depends on how big and how ‘ripe’ your cabbage is.
4. Place the cabbage segments into a bowl and leave covered for 5-6 hours, or till cabbage is floppy enough so that the leaves can be bent over, but still make a crisp ‘snapping’ noise when snapped.
20kg of Chinese/Napa cabbage that has been salted and is now ready to be washed and wrung out before the seasoning process begins!
5. After leaving for 5-6 hours, rinse the lettuce twice in clean water, then squeeze as much water out of the lettuce as humanly possible (yes, squishing the cabbage is perfectly alright), and leave on a strainer for another 15-30 mins to drain the last of the water out.
6. The ‘sauce’ can be made whilst you’re waiting for the cabbage to wilt (in step 4). Combine 1 heaped tbsp of glutinous rice powder with 1/2 cup water in a pot, stir vigorously over a low heat till the mixture has turned white, has a very thick consistancy and bubbles whilst being stirred.
7. Let the rice powder glue cool down, and while it’s cooling, blend together the garlic, ginger, nashi pear, onion and Chinese radish into a pulpy liquid. Once the rice powder glue is completely cool, stir in the chilli powder, sugar and fish sauce, then pear mix and spring onion and combine well.
8. Lay out the cabbage and coat the front and back of every leaf with this rice chilli paste, making sure that they’re well coated and you haven’t missed any bits.
9. Once all the cabbage has been coated, press down into an airtight container and store in a cool, dark place for 3 days to aid the fermentation process. Taste it after 3 days, and if the lettuce tastes slightly tangy, soft but with some crunch and spicy, then place in your fridge. This can be stored in your fridge for up to 3 months (if it lasts that long!)
If you’ve never tried eating this before, I’d suggest going to a Korean restaurant to try it first befrore making it, but once you taste this, I guarantee you’ll come back for more!
So, the recipe is time consuming, requires a lot of effort and is very hands on. You have to really be a fan to make it often, but we go through a 10-head batch in about 4-6 weeks, so it’s usually a monthly process for me and mom
As for how serious we are about our kimchi – I’d like to introduce you to our ‘kimchi refrigerator’. That’s right, a refrigerator dedicated to storing your kimchi and keeping it as tasty as possible. Mr Woofy models next to it to provide a bit of a size comparison.
Have you actually read this entire entry? Good grief – I demand you go pour yourself a glass of wine and congratulate yourself on suffering through the length of this Please, anyone who tries this, please let me know how you go as me and mom would love to know of anyone trying this most favourite food of ours!
[tags]kimchi, korean food, korean recipes, pickling, vegetables, pickles, Asian food[/tags]
I can’t believe I’m out of caster sugar (superfine sugar for those of you north of the hemisphere). Since WHEN am I out of caster sugar? I’m guessing the culprit is mom as she likes using it for marinades as it dissolves more readily than regular white sugar…*sigh* Damnit, I want cake! Asked mom to drive me to the store as it’s pouring down with rain, she told me to walk.
It’s freeeezing! Not in this lifetime!
Anyway, instead of cake, here are two traditional Korean dishes – both are solid favourites in my household, and both go down well in winter as they’re warm and filling!
Korean boiled ribs
Korean Boiled Beef Ribs
Ingredients
1kg beef short ribs, cut into 5cm lengths
2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped into 5cm long lengths
150g dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked
1 onion, cut into quarters
2 potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp of garlic
4 tbsp of sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp of hondashi (Japanese beef stock, but regular beef stock will be fine)
1. Cut off the fat from the meat and make cuts into the thick parts to help the marinade sink in. Put the meat into cold water to soak the blood out for at least an hour.
2. Drain the meat. Put a pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil, once boiling add the meat and boil for about 15-20 minuts. Remove from stove and drain the water out.
3. Add the carrots, onion, potato and rehydrated shiitake mushrooms. Also add soy sauce, water, garlic, sugar, salt, and beef stock. Mix it all up so that all the veggies and meat are coated in the soy mix then put the lid on and slowly bring to the boil.
4. Boil for about 10 minutes, then taste the sauce and add more sugar or salt according to taste. Bring the heat down to a low flame and cook for 30mins – 1hr, or till meat is tender enough to easily pull apart and potato and carrots are soft enough to mush.
The best way to serve this dish is with a bowl of rice – my favourite way to eat this is to grab some carrot, potato and onion and mush it into my rice so it’s all mixed in, then just take a bite of rib with a spoon of rice. It’s very rich and filling, the flavours are strong and you may also consider serving this dish with some cucumber and carrot sticks to balance out the richness.
[tags]korean food, korean recipes, galbi, beef ribs, marinade, sauce[/tags]
What do you make when you’re tired, cold, and just want an easy meal because the thought of the effort required to chew very solid food just hurts your brain?
Why, pumpkin soup, of course!
Or, in my case, pumpkin and kumara (or sweet potato) soup 
Mmmm, creamy pumpkin and sweet potato soup!
Recipe is below the cut, but now I must be off to bed as I start back at work tomorrow. Ugh. Lucky Mr. Woofy is already passed out and dreaming of thick meaty bones, by the looks of the drool spots on my doona cover!
Look at that tiny bit of tongue sticking out as he sleeps! Wonder what he’s dreaming about…
Ingredients
40g butter
1 medium brown onion, chopped coarsely
2 tsp crushed garlic
2 tsp ground cumin
1.1 kg of coarsely chopped pumpkin (after skin and seeds have been removed)
500g coarsely chopped sweet potato
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
2-3 cups water
Either cream or sour cream to serve
1. Melt butter in a large pot, cook onion, garlic, cumin and coriander, stirring until the onion softens.
2. Add pumpkin, sweet potato and stock, stirring the ingredients just to make sure everything is mixed up. Add only enough water to barely cover the pumpkin. Reduce the heat and simmer the covered pot for 15 mins ore till the pumpkin is soft enough so that you can press it flat without too much effort.
3. Use either a blender or stick blender to process the pumpkin mixture till very smooth. Leave in the covered pot till it is to be served.
4. Just before serving, add 1/2 cup of either cream or sour cream and stir through the hot mixture continuously till it is mixed in and smooth.
This makes about 4-5 hearty sized servings, and I love having this soup with garlicky mushrooms on toast. If no mushrooms are available, it is still perfectly good with a crusty roll to help mop up all the soup
[tags]soup, pumpkin, sweet potato[/tags]
