Beetroot Risotto

The long Easter weekend of indulgence has now ended, leaving me with a small bulge in my tummy to work off. I planned to do some girly shopping that I had been putting off for ages over the Easter holiday, but that didn’t happen unfortunately. Ever since I got into cooking, shopping for clothes doesn’t excite me enough to make me bother to go through the course of endless taking off and putting on clothes. Not a good sign, is it? I don’t even remember the last time I bought anything to put on my body rather than either to put in my mouth or stock up my kitchen. BUT, BUT, BUT!!!! I’m definitely going to clean out my wardrobe soon… maybe after trimming my body a bit so that I won’t get depressed when the clothes I try on don’t fit.

<Beetroot Risotto>

I think this gorgeous looking dish will help to take toxins out of my body and reset my diet. I love beetroot in almost everything, especially grated raw beetroot in my sandwiches, and I also love beetroot dip made with yoghurt. Still, the best way to enjoy everything it can offer, the earthiness and sweetness, is warm beetroot salad because you can eat a lot of it at one go. But risotto, not only the most versatile but also the easiest and the most satisfying of all cooking methods, seems to be  simply the best way to get all the goodness out of the healthy vegetable.

Risotto is one of the foods that are longed for by many on a cold winter night as comfort food along with pasta, stew, curry and roasted vegetables. I didn’t roast the beetroot this time, though, if I had had more time I would probably have because I like roasted flavour. I think it is the best to keep the recipe as simple as possible so that you don’t spoil the delicate flavour and elegant perfume  of the beetroot. The herb used here is parsley, but you can use rosemary, thyme or dill. You could also play around with different type of cheese, from feta cheese to goat cheese. To top it off I made cucumber rocket salad, whose peppery flavour seemed to bring out more of the creaminess and sweetness of risotto.

Seductive purple…. Nice to look at…Just eat with eyes….

I could have added wilted beetroot leaves on top, but I had already used them up for something else. It is quite recent that I started eating the leaves and I quite like the spinach-like taste, besides, I feel much better about not having to waste any parts.

To create this purple art for 2-3 people

You need:

1 bunch of beetroot, leaves and all
3 cloves of garlic
1 onion, chopped
30g butter
olive oil
1 ltr vegetable stock
200g arborio rice
1 glass of red wine
1/2 c grated parmesan
1/3 c heavy cream or sour cream(optional)
salt and pepper
squeeze of lemon juice

Cook the beetroots,  either roast or boil with skin on, and cool, then peel off the skin and cut into pieces. Set aside.

In a large pan, heat butter and a splash of olive oil. Sauté the chopped onion and garlic until it is soft. Add the rice, and toast for two mins. Tip in the red wine, and stir till it is absorbed. Add a ladle of hot stock, stir until it is completely absorbed, then add the next ladle, and continue in this fashion for about 15-20 mins, until the rice gets to the desired texture and consistency. Lower the heat and add cream and grated parmesan stir for 2 mins. Taste for seasoning.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the beetroot and herb, and gently fold in,  then put the lid on the pan and leave it to rest for 1 – 2 minutes, then squeeze some lemon juice and serve.

NB: I would add more stock and butter to make it creamier on a colder night.

Serves 2 generously.

Watercress Chickpea Soup

April already…time flies…. *sigh* To look at the bright side,  my overseas holiday is coming closer. *smile*

It has been quite dull and wet lately as the weather cools down. Getting into and out of bed to the chill certainly is the alarm bell telling us the season of colds and flue has arrived. I felt quite light-headed the other day and thought I was coming down with the flue. So,  instead of making lemon honey tea, which I usually do when I get a cold, this time I ate two whole raw lemon with half a dozen of crystallised ginger. Oh YEAH~ *I can see your forehead being knitted into a puzzled and then disgusted frown.* But I’ll tell you that what I had done was worthwhile, because I felt fine the next day and lucky my symptoms didn’t develop into a cold.

Although I had got through the first warning to my health, I thought it would be nice to revitalise my body going into cold and flue season. That is how this healthy tasty soup has made its appearance here.

<Watercress Chick pea Soup>

Initially I was going to put potatoes in to be on the safe side, but I didn’t have any potatoes at that time or at all times; I’m not a huge fan of them, then I saw a bag of cooked chickpeas in the freezer; as a way of trying not to use tinned products I started to cook a pot of dried chickpeas or beans and freeze them. It saves a lot of time and money, what’s the best is that it’s much fresher and healthier.

Before I got started, I searched the net to see if anyone had tried the combination of watercress and chick peas, and I was glad to find a recipe on a healthy food site, which had a mixture of three main ingredients: watercress, carrots, chickpeas.

I really liked the nuttiness and heartiness of the soup. I usually make soup quite thick, not too watery. I had the leftover cold straight out of the fridge for lunch the next day, and it also tasted good as cold soup, though, I’d eat it hot. It is certainly one of the nicest comfort soups that can be  enjoyed throughout the cold months.

<Watercress Chickpea Soup>

Ingredients

a bunch of watercress, washed&chopped, stalk and all
2 cups chickpeas
1 carrot, chopped
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
1 pint vegetable stock
olive oil
salt&pepper
Heat  olive oil in a large saucepan and sauté the onion and garlic. Add the chopped carrot and cook for 5 mins.
Add the watercress and stir well until the watercress is mixed in and starting to wilt. Add the drained chick-peas, stock and cumin and simmer gently for 20 mins or until the carrot is cooked.

Blend the soup in a processor until smooth. Put it back into a pot and simmer further before serving.
Serve with thick Greek style yoghurt with mint. (I think mint complemented the soup flavour very well.)

Oyster Mushroom with Fennel and Hazelnut

Oyster Mushroom with Fennel and Hazelnut

It has been a long time since my last pasta entry. I guess pasta is more of wintery comfort food along with Indian curry. There was a hilarious incident during class where when one of Korean students made a comment about pasta saying it was fatty, the passionate Italian student immediately came to the defence of the Italian national dish, throwing his hands in the air (typical Italian body language), all excited. The discussion, which went on for good 20 minutes, gave the whole class a teary laugh and made the poor Korean girl give an official apology for disgracing pasta and the population of Italy. We went back to our lesson, feeling relieved and thankful that it didn’t lead to World War Three. Instead, it gave us an opportunity to taste authentic tuna pasta cooked by the real Italian!!!! It was great and it proved to the girl that Italian can be light and tasty. *myth busted*

I wonder which side I would stand on if there were a war between the two countries. Probably… Italy for food, as I did during the classroom debate.

It reflexs the truth of misrepresented images of Italian food in many Asian countries. Their experience of Italian food makes people believe that all Italian dishes are cheesy, oily and creamy.

I often go to Paddy’s market on weekends to get different varieties of fungi, not button muchrooms, such as oyster, enoki, pine, shitake, etc. I love the flavour and texture of mushrooms, and mushrooms are so great on pizza and pasta.

So now I have oyster mushrroms and it is time to think of the flavour to compliment them. Poking in the fridge to come up with an idea, I spotted Italian cheese, pecorino, which I had had unopened for a month. Seeing the chance, I instantly decided on cheesy flavour and the things you see in the picture are what ended up as the base of my sauce.

I tried a new type of pasta, which I hadn’t used before, really thick feccucine made with semolina. You can alter this recipe to your preference by using different herbs such as sage and cilantro, and by adding a bit of tomato paste and cream to make pink sauce. Don’t be afraid of playing around with any ingredients you have on hand.

To make this lovely flavoursome pasta for 4

any pasta of your choice

for the sauce

300g oyster mushroom
3 shallots, finely sliced
3 clove garlic, minced
2 anchovy fillets, chopped
1 cup dry white wine
1 Tbs butter
3 Tbs olive oil
1/2 c pecorino cheese, grated
1/4 c parsley, chopped
fennel leaves

for the topping

1 bulb fennel, diced
1/3 cup roasted hazelnut, chopped
olive oil
salt, pepper, caynnene pepper to taste (for a zing!)

• Make the topping firstSauté the garlic, fennel and nuts in olive oil until golden brown. Remove from the pan and set aside.
• Make the sauce nowSlice  the oyster mushroom petals if they are too big. Chop any stem or core pieces from the mushroom.Sauté the shallots, anchovy and garlic in olive oil until the shallots just start to turn translucent. Remove from pan and set aside.

  Add some more olive oil to the pan and then the mushrooms. Gently stir them over medium high heat for a few minutes. Add wine, lower heat and cover. Cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and stir gently over medium heat until the liquid is nearly gone.Stir in the reserved shallot/garlic mixture, parsley, fennel leaves, butter, cheese.

• Cook the pasta in boiling salted water. When cooked, remove a dozen or so of the larger mushroom pieces to a side plate. Then, with tongs, lift the pasta directly into the pan with the mushroom sauce, allowing a little of the pasta water to ride along. Over medium heat, lift and toss the pasta to mix with the sauce (be careful not to break up the mushroom pieces).Serve with the reserved mushroom pieces and a sprinkling of the fennel/garlic topping and, if desired, a stalk or two of chives.

Verdict: It was a nice combination of flavours, but I “whoops-a-daisyed” a bit too much caynenne pepper into the topping, and that overpowered the delicate flavours of fennel and hazelnut, but overrall, it is worth a try, I THINK. I recommend nice rocket salad to go with this.

Chickpea, spinach, raisin pilaf

It has been either dull or rainy for over a week, which marks another record of unusual Sydney summer weather. The temperature surged up to around 40 degree just the week before, and one day  it dropped to a mid-low 20s overnight. Some say that the bushfires in Victoria is affecting the atmosphere, which leads to wet weather across and around Victoria. The effect of the bushfire is quite severe this year and has put many people in tragic situations , as the death toll reaches almost 200.

To change the subject, I talk with my students about food a lot during class and they response to that with enthusiasm equivalent to mine. The talk of cooking always seems endless and tickles my senses. Honestly, I wasn’t very keen on the cusine from Middle East or North Africa, in which various spices play a major role besides India. While many people pick Moroccan as their favourite flavour, it was only recently when I visited a spice shop called ‘Herbies’ that I got more interested in the cooking of those regions, although I had a pantry full of spices being a foodie on training.   The experience of smelling different spices was amazing and had an soul cleansing effect on me that day.

Chickpea, spinach, raisin pilaf

I came across this recipe and played around a bit and came up with my version. I hope you enjoy my version. ;-D It reminds a lot of Moroccan couscous dishes and Italian equivalent of rish dishes except for the different spices. “plov” or “polaf” is often considered to be one of the oldest preparations of rice which has Persian or Turkic roots. One of the earliest literary references to Pilau can be found in the histories of Alexander the Great when describing the hospitality of an Eastern Iranian provine( probably the birthplace of Alexander’s wife Roxana and geographically in modern Afghanistan).  It was known to have been served to Alexander the Great upon his capture of the Sogdian capital of Marakanda (modern Samarkand). Alexander’s army brought it back to Macedonia and spread it throughout Eastern Europe.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 225g (8 oz) basmati rice
• 400g cooked chickpeas
• 1/2 cup cooked English spinach, drained and chopped
• 1 onion
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 1 tsp ground carmadon
• 1 tsp cinnamon stick, bruised
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp grated fresh root ginger
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• 50g (2 oz) raisins
• 750ml  vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 50g (2 oz) cashew nuts, toasted
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
• pepper
• fresh coriander sprigs, to garnish

Method

1. Wash the rice in a sieve under cold running water until it runs clear; set aside.
2. Dry-fry the whole spices  for about 2 minutes until they start to pop and release their aroma.
3. Peel and finely chop the onion. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, garlic, ginger and ground spices and fry for 10 minutes until the vegetables are golden. Add the dry-fried spice mixture to the pan with the rice and stir-fry for 1 minute until all the rice grains are glossy.
4. Add the chick peas, spinach, raisins, stock, lemon juice and salt to the pan. Bring to the boil, stir once and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Simmer over a low heat for 10 minutes, then take off the heat and leave undisturbed for 5 minutes.
5. Fork through the cashew nuts and coriander. Check the seasoning and serve at once, garnished with fresh coriander sprigs.

Serving Suggestion

• Personally I enjoyed a generous dollop of plain yoghurt with this vegetarian meal.

Variations

You can replace spinach with other vegetables such as carrots, zuchini, potatoes or peas for a vegetarian meal. Or you can toss through with any cooked meat of your choice.

Tofu Haloumi Salad

People tend to associate tofu with Asian cooking, which is natural since tofu was originated in Asia. Nowadays, more and more westerners are turning their attention towards the health benefits of tofu or soy based food. However, how they eat tofu seems to be limited to a few dishes with deep fried bean curd or a bit of tofu floating in miso soup. Tofu, bland on its own, can bore a lot of people who haven’t develop their taste for it. I, on the other hand, growing up on tofu,  have various ways of eating tofu; off the top of my head….

Fresh tofu or egg coated and pan fried tofu garnished with spring onion and toasted seaweed and drizzled with soy sauce

Fried rice with fried crumbly tofu and egg

Fried tofu braised with sweet soy sauce or spicy soy sauce

Tofu and vegetable dumplings

Tofu pancake

Tofu burger patties – try making meat patties mixed with tofu

A variety of soup dishes with either hard or soft tofu

Satay Tofu – my all time favourite

The list goes on…..

Today, looking at a white block of tofu, I thought tofu and haloumi had a lot in common, then the idea of faking haloumi with tofu came to my mind. To copy the saltiness of haloumi, I coasted the nicely cut tofu squres with a reasonable amount of sea salt and left them to get all the water out of the tofu so that it would be nice and firm when cooked, and has the salty taste. I pan fried the tofu slices until golden and crispy and topped each with a bit of brie cheese to give a cheesy flavour to it. Top them on the bed of salad, a good mix of rocket leaves and some grilled eggplant, carrot or any vegies you can get hold of at the time, and drizzle a generous amount of extra olive oil and sprinkle some nuts, pine nuts or sunflower nuts or whatever nuts you have on hand.

I bet you will easily be  fooled by this fake haloumi.

Asian Affair

I don’t cook Asian food as much as I should because I love western food, especially Mediterranean cuisine. – Italian and Spanish. I love cheese so much I often nibble on it as a snack when I’m on the computer or watch TV and suddenly realise I have eaten the whole block of cheese.

People say Asian food is light and healthy, and these days many Europeans eat Asian food regularly and eating Asian seems such a sacred ritual to them – or else, a way to lose weight, especially when they struggle with chopsticks. I often feel compelled to go up to their table and feed them.

I, as a wine drinker, however, have to be hard pressed to ever cook any Asian because it just doesn’t seem to go with wine – for me anyway.

The only time I make Asian food is usually when I feel guilty for indulging in too much naughty food for weeks. The motive is far from pleasure, but still, it forces me to keep my Asian palate going. I would call it ‘Asian Affair’.

This particular dinner, which I have difficulty naming because more than three different cuisines are mixed.

Nancy’s Easy Peasy Satay Tofu, Spicy Eggplant, Chinese Green Kimchi

My guests’ all time favourite is, without a doubt, Satay Tofu. Its rich, nutty and sweet taste with a zing of chilli is something that warms your soul. It’s so easy to make, yet so satisfying! You will be amazed to find how simply it is to make it – to copy the taste, at least. All you need is crunchy peanut better, soy sauce, sugar and a bit of garlic and chilli, and maybe fish sauce and lemon if you want more authentic taste. But if you don’t have all the ingredients at handy, simply mix peanut butter with sweet chilli sauce, and it will do the trick just fine. *Lazy Satay*

I usually panfry flour-coated tofu like this so that it binds sauce better.

Deep fried bean curd would be even better and naughtier, but it would go against my healthy theme, wouldn’t it? I would change the taste depending on my mood by adding more chilli or garlic. Once I made it really spicy and my chilli loving guests at that time absolutely loved it.

Next is a variation of Malaysian spicy eggplant. I put capsicum for colour, but it could have been better if I had fresh chillies instead.

There are many varieties of Chinese green under the tag of ‘yao choy’, ‘choy sum’ or ‘you cai’. I got three

bunches of it for $2 on a Sunday at Paddy’s Market, and started to panic, figuring out a way to get rid of it without wasting it. This green salad seasoned with vinegar, chilli, sugar and sesame seeds was quite refreshing and complemented the rest of the dishes. Its taste was similar to Korean kimchi – even more so the next day – and I would call it ‘Accidental Kimchi Salad’. It is another way to enjoy Chinese vegetables as we normally eat them stirfried, sautéed or steamed.

Lebanese Gozleme

If you go to any festivals or outdoor events in Australia, your chance of coming across a Turkish Gozleme stall is 100%. Yeah, right, it’s THAT common. It’s normally old Turkish ladies in a traditional white dress generously splashing oil around while flipping over the yummy thing – nice and greasy.

As there are maths times tables that people know by heart, in cooking people also follow some formulas. Spinach, for instance, is often combined with feta and salmon with cream cheese or capers. Do we follow such rules without questioning them because they are the best match or we are so accustomed to them that we simply can take a risk of, to say, mixing spinach with cream cheese? Whatever your answer is, more and more people are becoming adventurous with food theses days. On a Gordon’s TV show a few weeks ago , a grilled curry prawn dish served with chocolate dipping sauce got Gordon flying off the handle. What was wrong with the dish? It sounded alright to me. I’ve seen steak or chicken with chocolate sauce and apparently it is the most popular sauce in Mexico. So why not with prawn? I’m going to try prawns with chili chocolate sauce one day and prove Gordon wrong. *can’t wait*

You all must know by now how much I love using Lebanese bread in my cooking. It is just so so so convenient and versatile. It makes good substitutes for pizza base, pita bread, tortilla and naan. Especially, I often make kebabs by wrapping whatever I have in Lebanese bread for quick lunch – and I toast it with some cheese when I have enough time, and it is like eating pizza rolled up. The best thing about a kebab compared to a sandwich is that you can fit more in and feel like you are eating two sandwiches.

A new item that has been enjoyed by many visitors to my place is this. Ta tah~~

Spinach Feta Gozleme with Lebanese Bread

So should I call it Lebanese Gozleme?

So easy, hassle free, and SO YUMMY!

Excellent as party finger food or appetiser or tapas

Version 1:

1. Saute silverbeet or English spinach and garlic with a little bit of butter, white wine and salt&pepper-silverbeet preferred

2. Divide Lebanese bread into two layers by pulling carefully along the edge.

3. Spread cooked silverbeet and feta over the first layer and sprinkle a bit of mozzarella cheese and place the other layer on top

4. Heat a frypan without oil and toast til crispy.

Version 2:

1. Do the same as 1,2

3. Spread some hummus over the second layer – it makes Gozleme thicker and moist ,and gives middle eastern flavour

4. the same

Hooked on Truffles

I have seen and heard of Italians going through such troubles to find truffles and raving about their unique flavour, but the mystery of truffles remained, until I finally tried Porcine risotto with White truffles at Primo Italiano-Sydney’s annual Italian festival. *You see me carefully putting the last spoonful of risotto?*

I was surprised by the unusual flavour, yet I wasn’t sure whether the flavour came from porcine mushrooms or the truffles or the combination. Then I saw cheese with white truffles at a cheese tasting stall and sampled some, there I finally understood the hoo-hah about Truffles. From then on, truffle flavour became something I can die for. *too exaggerated? I admit. *

Nowadays whenever I run into Italian cheese shops I look out for truffle cheese. *Perfect match for wine!*

These are three different types of cheese from Good Food&Wine Show last weekend where I lost my sense and bought a bag full of it. This truffle cheese was softer than one above and covered with what I thought was ashes – they made the cheese look a bit messy as you can see.

This Italian washed rind, creamy brie is what is thought to be the best in the world. I don’t know what could be the best way to describe the taste. *My apology for my lack of culinary vocabulary*

Very creamy and a bit stinky for brie, …

Nice with fruit paste…

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Shitaki Mushroom with White Truffle Cheese

I keep dried Shitaki mushrooms handy for those days when I can’t find anything to cook from the fridge. I often throw them in stir fry or any other Asian dishes since they give really nice, rich flavour.

I’m not sure if Italians cook with Shitaki mushrooms. I don’t remember seeing them in European shops or restaurants in general, either.

The first risotto I made was ‘Swiss Brown mushroom Risotto‘ and it is my all time favourite.

This time I adapted the same recipe to Shitaki by replacing parmesan cheese with truffle cheese. I was a bit worried the strong shtaki flavour would overpower truffles.

But the stinkiness of truffles beat shitaki 3 to 5. *impressive winning*

I recommend you squeeze a bit of lemon juice over your risotto.

Lemon will enhance the unique mushroom flavour to perfection and make every mouthful absolutely heavenly.

Nancy’s Food Collections

Just a small collection of dishes I made in the remote past. My initial plan was to publish them one by one whenever I get a chance. But as time goes and more new dishes come along, I find it hard to go back to old folders. Because, firstly, my new work looks better as I’ve been trying to learn photographing skills to present my dishes better, and secondly, I have moved on to simpler cooking style from the one that three meals are stuffed into one dish. Still, I adore my old babies and some of them cry out to see the world whenever I see them squashed in disorderly old folders. So here they are. I might find some time to write about each dish in the future, but for the time being please enjoy their looks.

Western

Chicken Mushroom Penne               Salmon Spinach Spaghetti

Pumpkin Spinach Feta Bread             Turkish Gozleme

Seafood Paella Pumpkin                 Sun-dried tomato Risotto

Spicy Bean Nachos                 Spinach Hot Mousse

Eastern

Oriental Fish Soup                         Tofu Stir-fry

Seafood Korean Pancake                     Kimchi Roll

Tofu Green Curry                     Fish Masala / Tofu&Veggie Korma

Move your mouse over the photos, and a link will appear if there is a recipe for them. Or if you are interested in any dished in the picture, give me a yell, then I will post the recipe immediately. Thanks.

Ricotta Ricotta!

Even people who can’t stand the smell and taste of normal cheese would love ricotta, I bet. It is similar to tofu in many ways – both are pure white, full of protein, nearly zero fat, soft creamy texture, mild flavour.

Despite the similarities, I haven’t thought of eating ricotta the way I do tofu – cooked with soy sauce or chili – until now, maybe that would be my next experiment. I’m sure if I google ‘ricotta with soy sauce’ I will get hundreds of results, though. There are a lot of interesting recipes out there these days.

One of my favourite way of enjoying ricotta cheese is to put a generous amount on toast with honey for breakfast, *mouth watering*, or just eat it by itself as if it were yoghurt, enjoying every spoonful of it, especially baked ricotta from a deli.

As a Sunday breakfast treat, I made an omelet with asparagus and ricotta. It is not an ordinary omelet that you crack whole eggs into a bowl and mix with other ingredients all together. My omelet making involves the effort of whisking egg whites separately- it feels more like baking. I don’t make the extra work to get an omelet that has a look of really thick fluffy clouds and smooth sponge cake texture.

More more ricotta, please~~~

Maybe it’s how omelet is normally cooked. But I don’t recall having any fluffy bouncy spongy omelet ever. There is another benefit in that method. If you have more mouths and not enough eggs, it will help to stretch out the meal.

<Fluffy Omelet with Asparagus & Ricotta >

I had it with garlic rubbed baguette, and with the flavours of asparagus and ricotta enhanced to perfection by the garlic flavour, I had to close my eyes…

*I was in heaven*

Asparagus&Leek

This is a dish that I made when I was staying in a hotel. You wouldn’t believe how someone can produce such gourmet food with very few kitchen equipments and very little ingridients. Yeah~ magic!

*A good workman never blames his tools*
It was fun to use salt and pepper in little sachets.

That was the time when I realised how important fresh ingredients and keeping the recipe as simple as possible was. I think I was healthier while living in the hotel than now in a proper flat. Strange…. Does anyone have the answer to this? *confused*

Fresh asparagus and leek in risotto style.

The reason I’m reluctant to call it risotto is that,
first of all, I used long grain rice and secondly, the rice was the leftover from the night before and I just threw it in the pan and mixed all together. So it may sound more like asparagus fried rice? HE HEh~~~*:-P*
Well, nice and light, right? If you don’t like the startchiness of ricotto. Remember I was in a tiny hotel kitchen………

Eggplant Season

“You should always eat fruit and vegetables in season.” My mum used to say that and always fed us with seasonal food. *thanks, mum* When I was growing up there wasn’t much produce from greenhouses. I remember living on mandarins through the winter, because, as a cold country, nothing grows in winter, but why mandarins?

Thanks to the only subtropical island called ‘Jeju’, far off the south coast of Korea.

It’s a volcanic island and the main producer of mandarins, which are the juicest and sweetest in the world! And they have NO PIPS, either! If you are a bit doubtful, just walk down to a Korean groccery shop, get a mandarin juice and try it for yourself. And if it turns out I’m right, hmmmm, send me a thanks cad. *big smile*

” So in winter, I would eat a big plastic bag full of them all day and night, lying on my stomach on a heated floor, until my skin turns as orange as the fruit. Having other fruits in winter, especially watermelons and pears, was luxury.”

The other day I printed out the list of seasonal fruits and vegetables, and I learned that eggplants and pupmkins were in seaon at the moment (it’s early automn here in Australia). So I made some nice vegie stack for a treat. It goes marvelously well with haloumi, but I made do with fetta cheese.

Roast eggplant slices, capsicum and pumkin – I salted the eggplant and let drain for 20 mins to take out the moisture before hand, and rinsed and dried it. As for the capsicum, I normally roast it until the skin is black and blistered, then peel it off. That way, you can get really nice soft texture.

That’s about done. Now just toss rocket leaves in plenty of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and make it a base (if you have some roasted garlic paste ready, put a little bit in) , then stack up all the vegies, olives and fetta. So simple and tasty!

Eat it with your eyes while enjoying the rest of Jeju Island below. *travel agent?*

Colour me Gimbop!

It sounds like a movie title, doesn’t it? Hah hah. I watched ‘Colour me Kubrick‘, a movie about a guy pretending to be Stanley Kubrick, the film director of a few famous movies including ‘A Space Odyssey‘, ‘A Clockwork Orange‘ and ‘Eyes Wides Shut‘, which opened my eyes to his movie world for the first time since I was a little crawling baby, peeing in my nappies, *blush*when the previous movies came out. If you guys haven’t seen ‘Vanilla Sky‘ by Tom Cruise, I recommend it since it is inspired by ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ and has some interesting scenes very dreamy and surreal. I was thinking it would be a good idea to make a section for people to write recommendations about movies or music. Ho ho. To start it off, I recommend ‘16 Blocks’. I watched it the other night and I laughed a lot, very funny, not because it was a comedy film, but the performance by the supporting actor was just hilarious, adding fun bits to the story. ‘16 Blocks’, stared by Bruce Willis, is a really good combination of suspense, action and comedy. I won’t say much. You just watch it. I guarantee you will enjoy it. v confidence v

I love different colours in my food. What looks good tastes good, doesn’t it? I turned humble Gimbop into colourful flowers. In case you might wonder what Gimbop is- what’s normally spelled as Kimbap, but I think my way of spelling it will sound the closest to the original pronunciation of it :p, it is Korean equivalent of Japanese sushi, more precisely Maki which is wrapped in nori(seaweed), but it has more stuff inside that brings out the full flavour of individual ingredients. Maki, to me, is tasteless without soy sauce and wasabi to dip in. Oh, oh, oh~ no offence here. *blush* I just think it has just too much rice and very little stuff inside. Not suitable for people on low carb diet.

So I mixed rice with vegetables of different colours to reduce the amount of rice. Carrot for orange, beetroot for purple, spinach or cucumber for green, egg yolk for yellow and the list goes on. They look too pretty to eat, don’t they? *proud* What’s inside? One with spicy tuna, the other with teriyaki mushroom.

The soup at the back is called ‘Taro soup with ground perilla seed‘. I know tropical islanders eat taro(Toran) with coconut milk,
but I replaced it with perilla seeds as is the way how Koreans eat it. They only make it on special occasions such as religious ceremonies or traditional holidays. Perilla seeds, which come from perilla leaves add creamy flavour and texture to food, and its leaves are used in making tuna or seafood maki to help digestion. But I don’t think I can get them here. I haven’t seen them at supermarkets.

Inspired by Keith Floyd

I watched ‘Floyd’s India’ on a food channel last night. Watching him throwing around all sorts of spices in exotic Indian settings got me craving for hot curry. It was coming to midnight then, and there was no way I could get Indian takeaway at that time of night. “I hate it when I can’t get late night munchies. Shops close so early!” Quietly protesting, I had to go to sleep dreaming about spicy curry dinner the next day.

I was writing this post last night and my computer went all funny, so I had to stop here. So I’m going to resume my writing, pretending now is the moment last night. It’s like traveling in time. Quite weird. It’s annoying the draft wasn’t saved automatically. I have to start all over again.

Anyway, here I am, with a full happy tummy, writing about the Indian dish I made remembering how Floyd did.

The first is a searing hot lentil curry with lots of garlic&ginger, chopped onion, ground red chilli, fennel, tumeric&corriandar powder. Throw the spice mix with lentils into a pan with oil and cook to bring out the flavour. Add chopped tomatoes and simmer until well cooked by adding a drop of water if necessary. (Indians will probably add more oil though) It sounds like an ordinary curry dish so far. Now I add tofu to complete is as Nancy’s fusion dish. Ha Ha! I love fresh tofu! I made soy ice cream with tofu a few days ago. I’m not telling you what it tasted like! Total secret!

The other dish is called ‘Taro coconut curry’. To balance the hotness I made it very mild and coconuty. Instead of using coconut cream with high saturated fat, I used grated coconut, just enough to give the flavour. Follow the same process as the first one with the different spice mix(curry, tumeric, cumin, garlic, coconut, onion). To distinguish this recipe from others I put sliced parsnip and precooked taro. Slightly fruit flavour of parsnip matched well with coconut and taro, I think? What do you think?

The picture below is hot hot hot fish masala and vegetable korma with tofu, which I made a few weeks before. I particularly enjoyed the fish curry very much. Yogurt with chopped cucumber&mint is a must have for your burning mouth. Tee Hee.

Korean fusion

(fried tofu with soy&apple sauce, fried rice with eggplant&veggies, kimchi)

160 different types of kimchi

First proper(?) Korean dinner, I mean I finally managed to make some ‘kimchi‘. You can’t really call a meal without kimchi a Korean meal. Unlike in Sydney, It is hard to get the Chinese cabbage here in Wellington, let alone a radish. I went to the veggie market last Sunday where you could get some Chinese vegetables. They were so cheap there, less than half the price at a supermarket. So I got one cabbage, but couldn’t get a radish after all, so I got parsnips instead. Replacing a radish with a parsnip will be experimental.

I cut and salted the cabbage(baechu) first overnight, and next day I rinsed it off with cold water and put it aside for later. Slice thinly some onion and parsnip, and grate some carrot as well. Kimchi usually has Chinese chives(boochu), but I don’t think I can get them here, so I will pass that until I eventually see them around. So I chopped some spring onions, more than normal for green color which the chive’s supposed to give. Now, here comes the most important and stinky(?) part. You blend lots of peeled garlic and ginger with fish sauce. That is the main seasoning mixed with Korean chilli powder and a bit of sugar, which gives kimchi the unique and healthy flavours. Wonder why it kills the bird flu virus!

Mix everything together and leave it for a few days to ferment. Of course you can eat it straight away. By fermenting it you can get some extra tangy flavour as well as a number of lactic acids, which is effective to curing intestinal disorders.

Kimchi is full of Vitamin A and C and enjoyed throuhout the cold Winter when vegetables are rare. It’s a good appetite booster too. You can make any dishes out of kimchi such as soup, stir-fry, dumpling or pancake, kimbap, etc. You name it. If you are a lover of spicy food , you will die for kimchi. Home made kimchi is alway much better and tastier than the commercial ones from the shop.

Fried tofu with soy&apple sauce

It’s become one of my favourite vegetarian dish. I just loved it! Soy sauce with apple syrup went well. It tastes like Teriyaki sauce, I guess, which has sugar in it, but with the apple flavour it’s quite something I can’t really describe. And as for the tofu, the way I normally do-frying fresh tofu crispy- gives the tofu chewy texture that’s closer to meat flesh.

Come over, guys, I will make some for you. ^^*