6 posts tagged “recipe”
Recipe time!
Here's a recipe for Japanese 五目飯 (gomoku gohan) that my mum tried - successfully - today. We first saw it on TVB's 原裝入口 programme, demonstrated by a Japanese expat living in Hong Kong. The recipe in Chinese can be found here. English translation is mine, additions from the actual programme in square brackets.
(5-6 portions) （5-6人份量）
- Ingredients 材料
- 3 cups (1 cup=180ml) "no-wash" Japanese rice 日本無洗珍珠米 3杯 （*1杯＝180毫升）
- 300g chicken leg meat 雞腿肉 300克
- 1/3 carrot 甘筍 1/3條
- 1/3 fresh burdock [wash well, scrub with a piece of aluminium foil, then shave into slivers with knife] 鮮牛蒡 1/3條
- 1/2 packet konnyaku strips [rinse and blanche] 蒟蒻絲 1/2包
- 1 packet shimeji mushrooms 榎木菇 1包
- [1 piece kombu (dried kelp)]
- Seasoning 調味料
- 3 cups dashi stock (simmer bonito flakes in water for 5 minutes) 上湯 3杯 （*用木魚花及清水熬製5分鐘即成）
- 3 tbsp Japanese shoyu 日本醬油 3湯匙
- 2 tbsp mirin 味醂 2湯匙
- 1 tbsp sake 清酒 1湯匙
- 1/2 tsp salt 鹽 1/2茶匙
- Garnish 裝飾
- a few mitsuba [parsley-like plant] leaves 三葉 少許
- Method 做法：
- Soak rice in mineral water for 30 min and strain. 日本無洗米用礦泉水浸30分鐘後，隔水待用。
- Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces, then season with shoyu and sake; wash and julienne carrot and burdock. 將雞肉切粒，用日本醬油和清酒稍醃一會，並將甘筍和牛蒡洗淨切絲。
- Mix seasoning ingredients together. 預先將調味料攪[拌]備用。
- Put rice in pot, place a piece of kombu in the middle, then add chicken, other ingredients and seasoning. 放入日本米，再放上一塊昆布在中間，然後將雞肉、其他材料和調味料鋪於煲仔內。
- With the heat on high, bring the mixture to a boil, then cover and turn the heat down to simmer for 20 min. 開始大火煮、沸後轉細火，煮約20分鐘。
- When ready, garnish with mitsuba. 煮成後，撒上三葉裝飾即可食用。
Notes:
We used normal Japanese rice, washed with tap water. Also dashi granules to make the stock. Instead of cutting konnyaku into strips, we used shirataki, which is konnyaku in noodle form; it should probably be cut into shorter strands for easier eating. Kombu was omitted since dad doesn't like seaweed of any kind, mitsuba since we didn't buy any. Burdock tastes a bit like ginseng and can be found at Isetan. We used our rice cooker rather than a claypot; this might have made the rice a bit more moist than it should be.
Today I cooked oden for the second time, following the recipe from About: Japanese Cuisine.
The first time I cooked this, I followed the recipe almost to the letter, resulting is a huuuuge pot we struggled to finish. So I trimmed down the ingredients this time. IMO, potatoes and eggs can go. Carrots are nice, but you don't really need both that and daikon (and I prefer daikon). And you don't need 2 blocks/packets of konnyaku - a little konnyaku goes a long way. You can get just about everything you need from Isetan supermarket. The best way to cook this is, of course, using the slow cooker.
Oden
INGREDIENTS:
* 1 daikon radish or 2 carrots
* 1 block of konnyaku 蒟蒻 (I prefer using a bag of smaller pieces to one big block - in any case, cut them small)
* 1 block of fried tofu (ganmodoki or atsuage)
* 4 fish-paste cakes (fish balls, kamaboko, chikuwa, etc)
* 4-5 tbsps of soy sauce
* 1 tsp of sugar
* 2 tbsps of sake
PREPARATION:
Boil 5 cups of dashi soup stock in a large pot. Cut ingredients into bite-sized pieces and add to the pot. Add sake, soy sauce, and sugar in the pot, and simmer. Add dashi soup stock and soy sauce as needed. The longer you cook oden, the better the taste.
Wikipedia has a whole list of common ingredients, including shiitake, which I think would be really nice. As an alternative to daikon, kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) would be interesting - much sweeter! Octopus and beef tendon would be lovely too, but expensive and hard to find here.
I used the purple potatoes available at supermarkets now - the colour is lovely, and the texture very smooth (thanks to K for the rec!) This recipe (despite the ingredients list in the original) uses just olive oil, no butter. I cooked about 500g of potatoes, and used 4 tbsp of oil (but 3 cloves of garlic since local garlic is milder and there really is no such thing as too much garlic). After whisking, it looked a bit dry so I added another tbsp of plain olive oil.
Mashed potato with garlic-infused olive oil
by Delia Smith
Serves 4
Preparation time 30 mins to 1 hour
Cooking time 30 mins to 1 hour
Ingredients
900g/2lb potatoes (Désirée or King Edward)
3 fat cloves, halved lengthways
8 tbsp best quality extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly millled black pepper
Method
First place the garlic and olive oil in a small saucepan over the gentlest heat possible - a heat diffuser is good for this - and leave for 1 hour for the garlic to infuse and become really soft.
Use a potato peeler to pare off the skins as thinly as possible and then cut the potatoes into even-sized chunks, not too small. If they are large, quarter them and if they are small, halve them.
Put the potato chunks in a large saucepan, then pour boiling water over them, add 1 dessertspoon of salt, put on a lid and simmer gently until they are absolutely tender - they should take approximately 25 minutes. The way to tell whether they are ready is to pierce them with a skewer in the thickest part; the potato should not be hard in the centre. And you need to be careful here, because if they are slightly underdone you do get lumps.
When the potatoes are cooked, drain them. Cover them with a clean tea cloth to absorb some of the steam for about 5 minutes, then using an electric whisk on a low speed, begin to break them up using half the garlic and oil. As soon as all that is incorporated, add the rest of the garlic and oil and whisk until smooth, seasoning well with salt and freshly milled black pepper.
ETA: I just read that using an electric mixer makes the potato too gummy (as does overcooking). I'm not sure if I enjoy mashed potatoes enough to buy a potato masher, though of course a masher is easier to clean.
While reading up on the No-Knead Bread yesterday (how many of you rushed off to google this after reading the article in ST? just me? okay...), I came across other recipes from NYT's The Minimalist column. Here's one that was so easy I made it today: Braised Pork With Red Wine. If you don't have a (free) NYT subscription, here's the recipe, reproduced.
Braised Pork With Red Wine
Time: About 2 hours
2 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into large chunks
Salt and pepper
2 cups fruity red wine, like Beaujolais or Burgundy (pinot noir)
1 cup good stock, or water
1 pound fat carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
10 cloves garlic, more or less, peeled
2 tablespoons butter
Cooked egg noodles for serving
Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish.
1. Combine pork, salt and pepper to taste, wine, stock, carrots and garlic in a saucepan, Dutch oven or slow cooker. Bring to a boil, then adjust heat so that mixture simmers steadily but not vigorously. (If using a slow cooker, just turn it to "high" and let cook for at least three hours.)
2. Cook, stirring every half-hour or so, until meat is very tender and just about falling apart, at least an hour and most likely a bit longer. Use a slotted spoon to remove solid ingredients to a bowl, then turn heat to high. (If using a slow cooker, transfer liquid to a saucepan for this step.) Reduce to about a cup, or even less. Taste and adjust seasoning, then lower heat and stir in butter.
3. Add solids to sauce and reheat. Serve over egg noodles, garnished with parsley.
Yield: 4 servings.
The author Mark Bittman has a short write-up on this dish here. He highly recommends pork shoulder because it's marbled and flavourful, and I agree. I cooked mine in the slow cooker (without browning, though he says you get a more complex flavour and better colour with that additional step), and the result is a very tender meat indeed. And as he says, pork shoulder is also cheap. We got almost 1kg of meat for S$10. (Pork shoulder is also great in stir-fries, says my grandma.) Using stock instead of water and reducing the sauce are tricks he borrowed from classic French cooking.
It's amazing how red wine makes everything yummier! I'm thinking here of the Orange Duck Casserole recipe I recommended before. I've been using old bottles of red to make these, but once I run out I'll have to actually pay for them - yikes.
As requested, here's my grandmother's recipe for Steamed Chicken. Our version, imo, is much nicer than the one they serve at Imperial Treasure, which has too much dark soy sauce.
Steamed chicken 蒸鸡
Ingredients
Chicken pieces, chopped small for faster cooking
Salt
Shaoxing rice wine
Sesame oil
Soy sauce (light and dark)
Dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked, steamed and sliced thinly
Black fungus 云耳, soaked and sliced
Dried lily buds 金针, soaked, hard ends removed and knotted
Preserved large-rooted mustard 大头菜, julienned and soaked
Ginger, julienned
Spring onions to garnish
Procedure
Season chicken with salt, wine, sesame oil and light soy sauce. A little dark soy sauce can be added for colour. Marinate for at least 3 hours.
Mix chicken with other ingredients and arrange on a large plate. A thin layer will ensure faster cooking. Steam. Half a chicken will take at least 20 minutes to cook (stir after 10 minutes).
Garnish with spring onions.
Since I've had a few requests for this recipe, I thought I might as well post it here. The original was by David Fokos on alt.food.sushi, but I've adapted it slightly.
Chawanmushi
Ingredients
For the custard:
4 eggs / 5 eggs / 6 eggs
2 ½ cups / 3 ⅛ cups / 3 ¾ cups dashi (warm water + dashi powder to taste) or chicken stock
2 tsp / 2 ½ tsp / 3 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp / 1 ¼ tsp / 1 ½ tsp mirin (sweet Japanese rice cooking wine)
Other ingredients:
Whole peeled prawns and/or scallops sprinkled with sake
Small cubes or thin slices of chicken sprinkled with soy sauce
Thin slices of kamaboko (Japanese fish cake)
Mushrooms (enoki, dobin, shiitake cooked in dashi with soy sauce and mirin)
Ginkgo nuts (cooked)
Thin strips of spinach or lemon rind for decorating on top
Procedure:
1. Add all the custard ingredients EXCEPT the eggs to the dashi. A little of this can be used to cook the mushrooms and/or ginkgo. Put the cooked mushrooms and/or ginkgo aside and return the remaining dashi to the bowl.
2. Break the eggs into a large bowl. Beat them lightly to avoid bubbling.
3. Pour the warm (not hot) dashi into the eggs and mix. Strain through a sieve.
4. Line up the chawan. Chawan are small ceramic cups with lids. If you don't have chawan, you can use ordinary coffee mugs.
Distribute the other ingredients at the bottom of the cups. Don't try to fill the cups, just leave some nice surprises.
Pour the egg mixture into each cup, leaving about a quarter inch at the top. Criss-cross a couple of thin strips of spinach on top of the egg mixture then cover each cup with a piece of foil or the lid.
5. In a wide pot big enough to hold all the cups, boil about 1"-2" of water, about half the height of the cups.
6. When the water boils, place the cups in, lower the heat to medium low. Cover the pot and steam until the custard has set (i.e. a bamboo skewer will come out clean) – about 10–15 minutes. Leave lids on until ready to eat.
Here's another recipe that's got me great feedback. It's really my grandmother's, but I'll set it down here for posterity! Estimate your own proportion of ingredients.
Marinade for grilled/roast/BBQ chicken
* Premium dark soy sauce (generous amount to get a better colour)
* Ginger juice (from freshly grated ginger)
* Shaoxing rice wine
* Sesame oil
* Maggi seasoning
* A generous amount of salt
You get the best results by marinating the chicken (whole or pieces) overnight. I like to salt my chicken really well, which also helps to produce a crisp skin. Alternatively, you could put less salt in the marinade, and brush on more salt before cooking - that should give you a crisp skin without the flesh becoming too salty.
For the record, my other favourite marinades for roast chicken include Nando's extra hot peri-peri sauce (will have to try making my own someday), and tarragon-garlic (minced garlic, chopped fresh tarragon, olive oil, lots of salt - to go under the skin as well as on).
